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EVANGELISTIC TALKS 
GIPSY SMITH 



EVANGELISTIC 
TALKS 

I GIPSY SMITH 

AUTHOR OF "THE LOST CHRIST," "YOUR BOYS," 
"REVIVAL SERMONS," ETC. 



WITH A FOREWORD BY 

Rev. JAMES I. VANCE, d.d. 




NEW X5|r YORK 
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 



BV 7 37?7 

. S r*r 



COPYRIGHT, 1922. 
BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 



EVANGELISTIC TALKS. II 
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 

OCT 12 '22 

©C1A683691 



FOREWORD 

The chapters which follow in this volume reveal 
Gipsy Smith. They discover his mind and heart 
processes in a way that is both accurate and unusual. 

It was my good fortune to be on the platform just 
behind the evangelist while he was delivering the ad- 
dresses which are the make-up of this book, and not 
only hear them all, but as Chairman of the Executive 
Committee conducting the campaign, to have in hand 
the details connected with their delivery. 

They were Gipsy's noonday addresses delivered in 
Ryman Auditorium, Nashville, Tennessee, on the 
week-days, Saturdays excepted, from February 12th to 
March 12th, 1922. The auditorium has a seating ca- 
pacity of five thousand, but the crowds were so great 
that the building was not only packed at the noon as 
well as the night hours, but vast numbers were turned 
away unable even to get inside the building. 

The sensational feature of these addresses, however, 
apart from the spiritual results of the message, was 
not in the crowds attracted, but in the wonderful 
versatility and swift mind and heart reaction of the 
speaker. 

The plan used at the noon hour was this : Each day 
a local pastor was teamed with the evangelist. The 
local pastor occupied the first ten minutes, speaking on 
some passage of his own selection from the Bible. 



vi FOREWORD 

Gipsy was not only in complete ignorance of what the 
local pastor was to speak about, but also of his iden- 
tity until a moment before he arose to speak, when I 
gave the evangelist the pastor's name, and he was 
presented by Gipsy to the audience. Thus without 
any previous special preparation, without any time in 
which to form an outline or assemble thoughts save 
the ten minutes of the first speaker's address, in entire 
ignorance of what the theme was to be, the marvellous 
addresses in this volume were delivered. And they 

WERE INVARIABLY ON THE THEME AND THE SCRIP- 
TURE PRESENTED BY THE LOCAL PASTOR. 

Gipsy's address followed the first speaker's, not in a 
general way, not in a few introductory sentences 
switching into a digression, but closely and logically, 
so far as the central theme was concerned. 

For this reason, these chapters in a striking way 
reveal the man. He has the resourcefulness of the 
greatest of preachers. With a mental grasp swift, ac- 
curate, and original ; with a command of simple words 
full of colour and action; with a delivery free of all 
tricks and affectation; with an eloquence sweeping 
from tears to smiles, mastering the mind, fusing the 
passions, capturing the will, Gipsy Smith reached in 
these impromptu addresses at Nashville a height of 
pulpit power the writer has not known surpassed. 

To find satisfying explanation, one needs to go back 
to Pentecost. 

James I. Vance. 

Nashville , Tennessee, 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I My People Shall Be Called by My 

Name 11 

II If Ye Abide in Me 17 

III I am the Good Shepherd .... 23 

IV Love 29 

V The Hope of Glory .... ^. 36 

VI What Shall I Do Then with Jesus? . 43 

VII And Lot Lifted Up His Eyes ... 49 

VIII Come 55 

IX What Wilt Thou That I Should Do 

unto Thee? 62 

X If any Man Thirst 67 

XI Who Hath Believed Our Report? . 7 A 

XII There Shall Ye See Him ... 81 

XIII The Unsearchable Riches of Christ . 89 

XIV Blessed Are the Pure in Heart . . 97 
XV Ye Shall Receive Power . . .106 

XVI He Pleased God 113 

XVII Then Drew Near unto Him . . .119 

XVIII The Wages of Sin Is Death ... 125 

XIX The Understanding of the Prudent . 132 

XX Twenty Two-Minute Sermonettes > 143 



vu 



EVANGELISTIC TALKS 



EVANGELISTIC TALKS 



MY PEOPLE SHALL BE CALLED BY MY NAME 

II Chron. 7:14. — "If my people, which are called by my 
name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my 
face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I 
hear from Heaven and will forgive their sin, and 
will heal their land." 

"My people shall be called by my name." 

The promise is to "my people." Don't you forget 
that word. The promise is not to any people — only 
to the people who can legitimately be called "my 
people." 

So this morning I ask you to look into your hearts 
and find out if you really, and truly, and wholly, have 
surrendered and obeyed, and by faith in Jesus Christ 
can honestly say you belong to God. 

I am not talking in the general sense because in the 
general sense everything belongs to Him, but I am 
talking of whom the Bible spoke — "my people." 

Now do you belong to Him? 

Many came to Jesus and said to Him, "In Thy 

name we have cast out devils and in Thy name have 

done many wonderful works," But Jesus said to 

11 



12 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

them, "I never knew you — you don't belong to me." 

Which crowd do you belong to? To the separated 
few working for God, those that have yielded them- 
selves as servants to God — who have come out from 
the world, and have learned the wonderful joy of com- 
plete fellowship with Him? 

"My people" — these words were spoken to my 
people. If my people ask, if my people believe, if my 
people meet the conditions — then it is that they may 
expect an answer when God says "My." 

Do you remember one day when Jesus was teaching 
and healing, and His mother and brothers came to see 
Him ? The crowd was so great that they couldn't get 
into the house where He was. They were impatient 
with Him — they had not learned to follow Him. 
Messengers brought Him word that His mother and 
His brothers were waiting for Him on the outside. 

Jesus answered them, "Who is my mother? Who 
are my sisters? Who are my brothers? All that do 
the will of my Father which is in heaven. The same 
is my mother, my sister and my brother." 

"My people" — if you are doing the will of God 
intelligently, if you are obeying God's commandments, 
then you can ask things of God, and you will get them. 

The Lord will not hear any who have not done 
His will — they do not know how to ask — they ask 
amiss. The man who is out of harmony with God 
can't ask the right things in the right way. If you 
want to get the right things, first of all, get right 
yourself. Begin with yourself. Begin with the per- 
son who wears your clothes. Begin with the person 
who is sitting where you are sitting. 



MY PEOPLE SHALL BE CALLED BY MY NAME 13 

"If my people seek, if my people ask, if my people 
knock they shall find. They shall see — to them will 
the door be opened." 

The promise is made to the specific one — to the 
obedient, and God knows better than to answer some 
prayers that some people offer. I know of cases where 
they seem to be praying for revivals. They ask for 
things, and if the Lord answered their prayers they 
wouldn't know what to do with the things when they 
get them. It would be moral and spiritual suicide for 
the Lord to answer some prayers. 

At a revival meeting, if you were to pick out some 
brother or some sister — church members — and say, "I 
want you to speak to this woman or this man — I want 
you to bring them to Christ" — the one you had chosen 
would say, I will get Brother So-and-so or I will call 
Sister So-and-so to do it. Yet they are church mem- 
bers. 

I tell you what I have discovered. It is easier to 
preach to a thousand than to talk to one person about 
Jesus. But what is the good of a sermon if we cannot 
direct it to the salvation of an individual ? 

Some of the mightiest things in the New Testament 
were said by Jesus Christ to one person. You and I 
must appeal to the individual. 

The promise is made to "my people. ,, Do you really 
belong to God ? Where do you stand now ? I know 
there was a time when you gave yourself to Him — 
when you were His. But where do you stand now ? 

There are many people labelled God's who don't 
belong to Him at all. 

The promise is made to "my people." It is my 



14 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

people and God knows who are His. "The Lord 
knoweth them that are His." 

If you will listen to me, and there is any doubt in 
your soul as to your spiritual condition, I will ask you 
to act promptly — to act to-day. Get right — get right 
so that you can help others, so that everybody will 
know that when you say, "I'm the Lord's and He is 
mine," they will feel that it is true, and they will know 
it. 

If you are right with God, you can't help knowing 
it. If you do not feel it, something is wrong — some- 
thing is wrong with you. When you get near a rose 
you know; when you get near a violet bed, you know; 
when the world is flooded with the glory and mag- 
nificence of God, you know. 

You can't come in contact with a changed life, a 
life that is Christ-like, without knowing it. You can't 
hide these things any more than you can stop the tide 
of the sea with an umbrella. 

When God saves you, there is happiness, and people 
know it. If you really and truly know that you be- 
long to God, somebody else will get the blessings. 

When I was a boy I heard a man talk about vessels 
of honour. I didn't know what a vessel was. T had 
never seen one, but I got the idea that a vessel was 
to hold something. And I decided that I wasn't a 
very big vessel. I couldn't read — I couldn't write, I 
was only a poor Gipsy boy — I hadn't been to school. 
"What am I?" I asked myself; and I thought, I may 
not be a very big vessel and cannot hold very much, 
but if my vessel is small, and I keep under the supply, 
I can overflow a lot, and we can overflow with the 



MY PEOPLE SHALL BE CALLED BY MY NAME 15 

glory of God — overflow until from us will stream 
channels of blessing. 

It is "my people." It is not the disobedient. It is 
not the crowds that are ever seeking pleasure. It is 
not the people who are not working with God. It is 
the people who are living with God — the people who 
are standing up for Jesus. 

"My people" — "If a man love me, my Father will 
love him and I will love him and we will come and 
make our abode with him." It is "my people" — the 
people who have God's love in them will show it. 

I will tell you something— the people in the churches 
to-day who love God with all their hearts, and want 
God, and are anxious for this city to be saved by God, 
will stand out more conspicuously a month hence than 
they do to-day as followers of God. 

There are moments when my Gipsy heart cries out 
for the woods — there is still something of the wild- 
ness of my youth left in me — and I am glad of it. If 
I were to be born again, I would want to be born a 
Gipsy. 

I have stood in the woods in Spring — in the month 
of April. I have seen the primroses, the hawthorn, 
the fern, the green lush grass — standing in it up to 
my knees. I have smelled the perfume of the flowers 
— perfume that would make you think it had been 
wafted by the wings of angels, from the hills of 
Paradise. 

Once as I stood thus I saw an old trunk. Not a 
branch remained on it. The limbs had all rotted off. 
It was not even covered with ivy. There it was in 
the midst of this beautiful Spring's bridal bouquet— • 



16 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

barren and ugly. And I thought I heard that old 
trunk say, "I don't believe in Spring." And I an- 
swered, "No, poor thing, you are too dead to believe 
in anything/' 

There are people in our churches who are like this 
old trunk. Their lives are barren — their souls are 
stripped of brotherly love, and of kindness. But they 
are not "my people." 

"My people" are standing out for Jesus. "My peo- 
ple" will pray and work. "My people" will come forth 
as an army with banners streaming for righteousness. 
The dead crowds will stand conspicuous without any 
leaves. 

Which crowd do you belong to? 

"My people." If "my people" seek Me they shall 
find Me and if they pray according to the conditions 
laid down in the Word of God, and honestly meet 
those conditions, then the windows of Heaven shall be 
opened and I will pour out such blessings that there 
shall not be room to contain them. 



II 

IF YE ABIDE IN ME 

John 15 : 7. — "If ye abide in Me, and my words abide in you, 
ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto 
you." 

What is meant by the word "obey" ? And what is 
the meaning of "abide"? Listen: "If you keep My 
commandments, ye shall abide in Me even as I have 
kept My Father's commandments and abide in Him" — 
so that to abide in the love of God is to be obedient to 
His word. 

Lots of people pray selfishly, and this is the reason 
that prayers are unanswered. You who want your 
prayers answered must do as Jesus did — say as He said, 
"If it be possible, let this cup pass from Me : neverthe- 
less, no\ My will but Thine be done." You must be 
willing, if necessary, to sip the bitter cup to the last 
drop. 

If a man abides by the word of God and if he obey 
the will of God which he purposed in Christ Jesus 
before the foundation of the World, then he may ask 
what he will and God says, It shall be done. When a 
man — you have never seen this, for it is done only in 
private, and only the eye of God witnesses — opens his 
heart to his creator, and sobs out in solitude the bur- 
den of his soul, which he makes known neither to his 

17 



18 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

wife or closest friend, or any other, and which God — 
and only God — can interpret, that is prayer. 

"Ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be given." 
I doubt not but that in your prayer services you have 
some whose prayers God will hardly recognise as 
such. Rather will He know them as "much speaking." 

Selfishness is an element which should be foreign to 
our prayers. We pray that the kingdom of God may 
extend and reach out to the ends of the earth; we 
pray that our neighbour may be relieved of the dif- 
ficulties which bow him down; we pray in the inter- 
ests of others, and if we do this shall not God take 
care of our own wants as well? 

You want to get into the heart of God, and then 
you can pray. If you will let me hear a man pray in 
public, I can tell you in two minutes whether he is 
accustomed to praying in private. There is something 
about the prayer of a man who is used to praying in 
private that cannot be mistaken. 

He knows — he approaches God with authority, with 
dignity. You may not be able to define it but you 
know it is there, and when it is absent you know. 

If a man abides in God and His words abide in 
him, he may ask what he will and it will be done unto 
him. 

If you abide in Him, call upon Him, and ask for 
something, let Him do it; He knows how to do it. 
If we pray for the right things, He will know how to 
give you the gifts you ask. 

If you haven't received, you haven't known how to 
ask, or you do not abide in Him. Some people let 
God do their asking for them. 



IF YE ABIDE IN ME 19 

Once when I was preaching in an English city — in 
Birmingham — before an audience of three thousand or 
four thousand people, I told them that they would not 
let the Lord do anything for them. I told them to 
bow their heads just then and to ask God to do some- 
thing for them. An old grandmother who had an 
income of $1.75 per week sat in the front of the audi- 
ence. She lived in one little room. Her son was in 
jail. She was taking care of her son's little boy, Jack. 
The little boy's mother was dead. 

Little Jack needed a pair of shoes. The old grand- 
mother had seen his little toes coming through the 
only pair of shoes he had, and she had no money with 
which to buy another pair. And she prayed, "O, 
blessed Jesus, a pair of shoes for Jack." 

When Jack went to school the next morning the 
schoolmaster was waiting for him, and said: "Jack, 
come here," and took him into his office. He had him 
try on a pair of shoes. He had seen Jack's little toes 
coming through the old shoes he wore, the day be- 
fore, and had ordered five or six pairs of shoes on 
approval. 

When Jack went home with his new shoes, can you 
imagine the joy of his old granny — can you imagine 
it? 

Let the critics say what they may, but I believe that 
not only does God answer our prayers after we have 
prayed them, He sometimes anticipates them. "Be- 
fore ye call, I will answer, and while ye are yet speak- 
ing, I will hear." 

Open your hearts and tell God you want something. 
He is in a delightful humour. "Ask and ye shall re- 



20 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

ceive, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be 
opened unto you." 

I have a mighty faith in God that will laugh at 
impossibilities — those who have that can march up to 
God with authority. 

When you are abiding in Christ, you can claim the 
things that belong to Christ. When you belong to a 
family, you don't ask if you can have a thing, you 
just take it. 

When my boys came home from school and sat at 
the table, they didn't ask if they could have some 
bread, — they said, "Please pass it up." At our own 
tables we don't ask if we may have something, we just 
take it. 

If you abide in the love of the Father, whatever 
belongs to the Kingdom of God is yours. You are 
a member of the family. Everything belongs to you. 

You must do the abiding, then you can ask what 
you will. 

We don't put God to the test. 

Once I was preaching in Lincoln, Eng. — it was my 
first campaign in the twentieth century. The building 
was crowded. At that service was a woman — a nom- 
inal church member — and her husband, who was a 
blasphemer. He held a position of trust on the Great 
Northern Railroad Company in the signal box at an 
important junction. 

As they were going home from the meeting that 
night, the wife spoke to him, calling him by his second 
name, "What do you think of him, Holt?" 

"Think of him?" he answered. "If that man is 
right, I am wrong. That's what I think of him. Of 



IF YE ABIDE IN ME 21 

course, I am not a church member. But you are and 
I have lived with you." 

She answered that she knew she was a member of 
the church, but she knew that she was not a child of 
God. And some of you will find that out some of 
these days. May God help you to be honest when you 
have found it out. 

Then they went home to tea. It was a quiet tea, 
even though they were surrounded by their six sons, 
one daughter and a motherless youth of seventeen 
who made his home with them. 

The husband would not go to the service that night 
because he would have had to go in his uniform — he 
went on duty at nine o'clock. 

That night the wife went to the meeting with two 
of her sons. They were converted. Then every night 
of the week some member of her family was con- 
verted, until at the end of the week her eldest son 
and her husband were the only unconverted ones. 
That night was my night of rest, but a prayer and 
song service was being held in the church. The wife 
went to the meeting alone. I crept in at the back to 
watch the service. The leader asked for testimonies. 

Holding a little Bible above her head, the wife stood 
and told her story. She said : 

"God has done great things for me this week. He 
has saved me, five of my boys, and a motherless youth 
who lives with me. To-morrow God will save my 
husband and my first-born. God will do it to-morrow. 
If He does not save my husband to-morrow, this 
Bible is not true." 

This brought me to my feet and I asked the people 



22 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

to join me in prayer for that husband and boy that 
God might save them both. The people fell on their 
knees — I can hear the thud of the people's knees as 
they fell on the floor even now — and prayed for that 
husband. 

The next morning when the husband came home 
from work, he found that his wife had overslept. 
When he called to her and awakened her she expected 
to be cursed for not being up. Instead, the husband 
built a fire, quietly ate the breakfast she prepared for 
him, and said he was going to sleep all he could that 
morning, so he could go to the Gipsy Smith meeting 
twice that day. 

Then the wife told him of the prayers that had been 
offered for him and told him it was the night before. 
"At what time?" he asked. "About half past eight, ,, 
she replied. Then he told her that the tracks at that 
time being clear, he had knelt and asked God to save 
him. "And I was converted then/' he answered. 
"God saved me last night." 

"Whatsoever ye ask in my name shall be done." 

God's promises will be fulfilled and God shall be 
glorified. Amen ! 



Ill 

I AM THE GOOD SHEPHERD 

John 10 : 13, 14. — "I am the Good Shepherd, and know my 
sheep, and am known of mine . . . 

[The hireling] fleeth because he is a hireling, and 
careth not for the sheep." 

Jesus spoke of the hirelings because He knew their 
possibility, just as He knew the possibility of the goats, 
and of the wolves in sheep's clothing, just as He knew 
that the sham and fraud would creep in with a crowd 
of sheep. So He knew that the fraud and sham would 
creep in with the faithful shepherd, just as He knew 
that one of His own chosen twelve would betray Him. 
He knew that through all the history of the world and 
of the Church. 

Ask yourself this question : Am I one of the sheep ? 
Do I know His voice? Is there the intimacy, the 
glorious intimacy of blessed fellowship, between my 
heart and that of my Shepherd ? Is there no shadow, 
no doubt, no uncertainty? 

Is my soul on the alert? Do I hear the call of the 
Shepherd ? When I go forth, does He lead me in the 
green pastures and beside the still waters ? Is my soul 
restored ? 

"My sheep hear My voice and they follow Me," but 
they do not know the voice of the stranger, and they 
will not follow the voice of the stranger. They wilL 
not be deceived. They know Me, and I know My 
people. 

23 



24 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

Don't be deceived when the wolf comes around in 
sheep's clothing. If there were no sheep, he wouldn't 
do that. He does it because there are sheep. Don't 
be surprised if you get a rude shock by a hireling. He 
will be there. 

It is a great thing to be an under-shepherd. The 
greatest honour Heaven can bestow is to make you a 
partner with God — a helper in the winning of souls. 

I have a notion that the saving of one soul is such 
a stupendous thing that God cannot trust it to one 
person. It takes a great many to do it. If you were 
to talk to a man who had been saved and ask him, 
"What made you become a Christian ? What led you 
into righteousness?" there would be a vast number of 
things that bore on the change in his life. 

It would not be one man, one woman, but a hundred 
forces, a hundred influences that God brought to bear 
on his soul. 

I want to say to every one who would serve in 
saving a soul, when God sends out His laurels, He 
will know your name, He will know where you live — 
He won't forget your address. You will get your 
reward. A man that brings a soul to God is going to 
shine as the stars forever and ever. 

I once knew a saintly man in England — an old man 
who had been a member of Parliament for years. I 
saw him just before he died, and he said to me, "Gipsy 
Smith, do you know, if I could live my life over 
again, I would work directly for the spiritual good 
instead of the temporal good of people." 

I told him that he couldn't give a cup of cold water 
in the name of a disciple and lose his reward. I told 



I AM THE GOOD SHEPHERD 25 

him also that in clothing the naked and visiting the 
sick and feeding the hungry, Jesus said, "Ye do it 
unto me." I told him that if he shook hands with a 
man in a "God bless you" spirit, he was uplifting 
some one. You can't dry the tear of a little child 
without helping the angels to kiss a tear into a jewel, 
without changing a sigh into a song. 

You can't tear up an old dress and make a dress 
for a motherless babe without putting on Him a seam- 
less robe. You cannot share a crust with some one 
who is hungry without doing good. "I was hungry 
and you fed me." You cannot pray at the bedside of 
some one who is sick without doing good. "I was 
sick and ye visited me." That is what I told the old 
man. And he replied, "I know that is all true. In 
serving the temporal needs, I have done good so far, 
and I believe that those who work for the temporal 
good of the world will be allowed to serve God in His 
temple, but those who turn many to righteousness 
will shine as the stars forever and ever, and I would 
rather be a shiner than a server"; and the old man was 
right. 

Every soul saved in this campaign is the result of 
somebody's — some thinking man's or woman's — pray- 
ing in this city; the fruits of the work of many per- 
haps who have gone to Heaven and never saw the re- 
sult of their labours. Forget not in these days to 
make your appeals to the unsaved, powerful and per- 
sonal. Every soul won for Jesus is the work of the 
Holy Spirit through God's people here on earth. 

And do not look at the unfaithful ministers when 
you are seeking the faithful. Do not emphasise the 



26 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

wolf when you ought to emphasise the sheep. God 
has sheep and shepherds who are faithful. Their 
faithfulness will be fruitful. 

Don't see only your side of the question. Take the 
beam out of your own eye before you try to remove 
the mote from the eye of your brother. Be honest 
with yourself in these days. Have you any of the 
wolf about you ? Some of you look like wolves when 
you show your teeth. Just let Jesus make you what 
he wants to make you during these days. 

"My sheep hear my voice and follow me" — are you 
doing that? Are you following Jesus? "I am come 
that they might have life and have it more abun- 
dantly." Oh, the exceeding abundance, the overflow- 
ing, the boundless, the limitless, the resourceful, the 
infinite abundance! 

I pray you may be faithful, I pray you may be loyal. 
Follow where He leads. Give unto God glory and 
listen to Him. He may speak in unexpected ways; 
He may speak in unlikely places. Listen for His 
voice — and obey. 

You know, very often, sheep are helped to their 
proper path, not by the shepherd at all, but by aid 
from an unexpected source. 

Some years ago, I took my summer holidays on a 
farm. You farmers know that when a sheep gets 
flat on his back he cannot get up again without aid. 
If he is not helped up, he will die. I have often gone 
around the farm and helped sheep to their feet, which 
I found helpless in this condition. 

If a man gets on his back, will he not die, if he is 
not helped up ? You say yes. Well, it is your business 



I AM THE GOOD SHEPHERD 27 

and mine to help him up. Shepherds do that. But the 
hireling? The hireling goes away and leaves him. 
The hireling does not care for the sheep. He is a 
hireling. 

That is not the spirit of Jesus. The shepherd 
cares for his sheep, he saves the sheep. The Good 
Shepherd guards the sheep tenderly and faithfully; 
he leaves the ninety-nine which are safe and goes out 
into the storm to seek and save the one that is lost. 

My brethren, there are lots of people out of the 
Church, who would have been in, if you had looked 
after them, if you had spoken a good word and ex- 
tended to them your friendship. You know people 
who are lost to the Church for the want of looking 
after. Is that true? Well, why don't you look after 
them? 

I am a man, a very hungry man. I want, oh, so 
much, to be loved. I could not exist if some one did 
not love me. For fifteen years out of twenty I have 
been separated from my family. But it was in answer 
to the call of God. I have been absent in trying to 
follow the path where the Shepherd has led. I would 
give the world for the touch of a hand, for the sound 
of a voice which I cannot hear. God has made us so. 
People outside the Church would be inside if you 
people had loved them. 

Jesus loved people, and you and I are here to repre- 
sent Him, and we shall save those, as we love them. 

If you believe these things, let God's love flow. If 
God puts new life in your soul, let that life flow out. 
There are many people all around you with broken 
hearts. Let them feel your love. 



28 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

In my own country there is a great sadness. One 
million of our boys were laid under the sod. There 
were two million more of casualties. Our hospitals 
are yet filled with the wounded and the helpless. 

I was riding in on a train from a visit to the coun- 
try. A gentleman got in the train at the same plat- 
form I did. Two or three stations further on, a lady 
got in whom I soon discovered was his wife. There 
was inexpressible grief written on their faces when 
they met. Their boy, I learned, was in a hospital 
suffering from wounds received in the war. He was 
horribly cut up, torn to pieces, mangled. 

She sat there with her poor mother-heart bleeding. 
Presently she couldn't stand the suspense any longer. 

"Father, is there any news?" she said. He an- 
swered one word, "Yes," and then another, "Gone." 

He took the telegram from his pocket and passed 
it to her. 

"Don't show me," she cried. "I can't bear it." 

The poor mother sat and sobbed her heart away in 
her corner. It seemed as if the flood-gates had been 
opened, as if her tears would never cease. 

"Mother, I am a stranger to you," I said. "But 
there is One who sees your sorrow and understands. 
Jesus understands. He sees every tear you shed. He 
is the Comforter." 

"Oh, thank you for that word," she sobbed. 

People all about you want the same words of com- 
fort. Act the shepherd in God's name; the world 
wants shepherds. Go forth, tend His sheep, love 
and help. When thou art converted, tend my sheep, 
look after my sheep. Oh, Jesus help you to do it. 



IV 

LOVE 

I Cor. 13 : 1. — "Though I speak with the tongues of men and 
of angels, and have not love, I am become as sound- 
ing brass, or a tinkling cymbal." 

John said: He that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in 
God. Paul said : If ye have not love, ye are as sound- 
ing brass or a tinkling cymbal — or a "clanging cym- 
bal' ' the later translators have put it. 

If you have not love, you have not God. If you 
have God, you are lovely, you will be lovable, you will 
love. 

"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of 
angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding 
brass or a tinkling cymbal/' 

"And though I have the gift of prophecy, and under- 
stand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I 
have faith, so that I could remove mountains, and 
have not love, I am nothing." 

"And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, 
and though I give my body to be burned, and have 
not love, it profiteth me nothing." 

Where are you? God is love. L-o-v-e — and love, 
as Henry Drummond, that saintly professor-evan- 
gelist, the colleague of Moody, said, "Love is the great- 
est thing in the world." 

29 



SO EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

Are you such a monstrosity as a professing Chris- 
tian without love? Do you talk about religion like a 
dog over a bone ? Haven't you heard people talk that 
way, with just that kind of a snarl about them ? 

Those who dwell in God dwell in love. Love has 
a language all her own. She speaks when there is no 
articulation; she speaks when there is no vocabulary; 
she speaks when language is silent. Love sings; love 
breathes; love looks; love gives — gives all and longs 
for more to give. 

Is the love of God in your heart? Are you a 
lovely Christian? 

Does the love of God shine in your face ? Does it 
sparkle in your eyes? Does it grace your counte- 
nance ? 

You know the world is dying for want of more 
love. Don't be afraid of spoiling some one with love. 
More people die for lack of a little spoiling than of 
too much of it. I want more of it myself. I won't 
lie about it. I won't say I don't. I say I could do 
with a lot more love. There isn't a heart on earth 
that doesn't want more love. 

What we need is to be so drenched with the love of 
God that it would cover everybody. 

Wouldn't it make a difference if there was more love 
in your home? 

Love is a dynamo, the force that makes everything 
a success in the world. Love is the mighty river that 
leads to victory. 

You know when I am at home, I live in Cambridge, 
that old centre of learning and culture — the sister city 
to Oxford. You know they boast of age. Some of 



LOVE 31 

it is musty, it is so old. There are grass lawns there 
a thousand years old; imagine it, lawns a thousand 
years old. 

They think they know everything. And some of 
you have just the same fever. You are positively so 
clever that the Lord can't teach you anything. 

And the dons there are in Cambridge! A live 
don is a live Cambridge or Oxford professor. He is, 
as you Americans would express it, "some person." 
I can just picture him as he walks along in his mortar 
board and gown, with his books under his arm. He 
is positively some person. And these dons think they 
know everything and if there is anything they don't 
know, they don't consider that it is worth knowing. 

Why didn't God choose one of these to be a 
preacher? But He went to a gipsy tent and found a 
little gipsy boy there — a little boy who never went to 
school in his life and had never studied about religion 
out of books. But he had the love of Jesus, the love 
of God that passeth knowledge. 

I will put that gipsy boy beside the professors who 
have not been born again, and where spiritual things 
are concerned, he will teach the professors. 

Explain it — the Bible explains it. The natural man 
does not understand the things of God. They are 
foolishness to him. 

The piano is musically understood. A daffodil is 
botanically understood. A star — well — you must be 
an astronomer if you are to understand stars. If you 
want to understand the rocks, you must be a geologist. 

Oh, the great love of God. 

Get on your knees; kneel like the poor sinner you 



32 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

are. There is no other way. You can't talk to God 
on stilts ; get down off of them. Get out of your auto- 
mobile and get down on your knees. Come to God 
like a humble sinner; a sinner who happens to own 
an automobile. 

And, believe me, the love of God is understood not 
by the schools, or only by the theologians, but by the 
believing, obedient heart. 

I was holding a revival in Kansas City, and during 
the three weeks it was claimed that more people listened 
to the gospel in that city at that time than in any city 
of the world during the Christian era. Thousands were 
turned away each day. 

As I was coming out of one of the services, I went 
into a little room behind the rostrum, where I usually 
put on my coat and wait for a little while to cool 
off before going outside. An old preacher followed 
me into the room. He was a venerable man and his 
hair was white. He stood behind my chair and put 
his hands on my head. I bent forward in silence. I 
thought he was going to bless me. But instead of 
blessing me, he was feeling my head. 

"Are you a phrenologist ?" I said. 

"No," he answered, "I am feeling for the secret of 
your success." 

"Well, brother," I said, "you are too high. The 
secret of my success lies in my heart." 

Love is a matter of the heart. Love is understood 
by the heart, not by the brain. If you want to know 
the love of God, get down before Him and open your 
heart. If your heart is ugly, show Him the truth. 
He will make it beautiful for you. 



LOVE 33 

The way some of you act shows your hearts are 
ugly. 

"The heart is deceitful above all things and is des- 
perately wicked." 

God loves you — nobody is left out of God's abundant 
love. You may close your eyes now, if you will, 
and lay your hand on your heart and say, "He loved 
me and gave Himself for me." Say that over a few 
times until you realise you are getting close to the Cre- 
ator. He loves me; He gave Himself for me. And 
then if you love Him, you will show your love for 
Him; you can't help it. If the love of God fills your 
heart, that love will flow out. "If a man love Me, he 
will keep my words." It is up to you to prove your 
love. Prove it by beautiful acts, by devoted service 
and sacrifice. Show it to everybody. 

I want to tell you a little story. Many years ago 
my two boys, small then, were going to school. 

Both of them are now preachers. One is in this 
country, an American citizen, doing evangelistic work, 
the other son is in England, a minister. 

Well — my two boys, when they were young, were 
sent to school. They had what I didn't. I gave them 
the opportunity to get what I missed in my childhood. 
One day they came home unusually early for lunch. 
They came at 1 1 130, when they should not have been 
at home until 12 130. They had not been to school, 
I knew. They had played, as you say in America, 
hooky. In England, we call it playing truant. I was 
a very young father. My first boy was born before 
I was twenty-one. I felt it my duty to do something 
in the matter. I took my watch out and said, "Boys, 



34 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

why are you home so soon? Where have you been?" 

"We have been playing," they said. 

"Yes, playing truant." 

They admitted it. 

"I have never played truant in my life," I said. 

"You never went to school," the elder boy said. 

"No," I said, "I did not. I did not have your 
chance. My not having attended school was a mis- 
fortune; your not having attended is a sin." 

I knew they must be punished, but I didn't know 
how to go about it. I was a very young and inexperi- 
enced father. I was up against it, to use one of your 
American "classic" phrases. I had to do some- 
thing. I shrank from the idea of punishing them. 
It was harder for me in truth than for them. 

"You will have to be punished," I said. I sent the 
elder boy upstairs to the back room and told him to 
stay there all day. Then I sent the other boy to 
another room, and bade him do likewise. 

"You will have bread and water for dinner and for 
supper and nothing else," I told them. 

They trudged off upstairs and the thud of their 
boots on the steps was like falling stones on my heart. 
Presently I heard the elder boy walking around his 
room and singing, "We'll work and wait till Jesus 
comes." 

When dinner-time came I took them up their bread 
and water. I couldn't trust any one else. 

Albany, the elder, ate his and asked for more. Han- 
ley did not touch his, and I need not tell you who are 
parents that I did not eat that day. No food would 
have tempted me. And I cannot tell you how often 



LOVE 35 

I climbed those stairs to see what the boys were doing. 
I could not read, or write, or see people. It was the 
first time in my life that anything had come between 
my boys and myself. And my young father-heart suf- 
fered far more than the boys. I was punished most, 
because Love suffers. 

At night- fall I was listening on the landing, and 
found Albany had entered into rest and was snoring. 
Hanley could not sleep. He was already penitent. 
Hearing my footsteps, he called me : "Daddy ! will 
you forgive me just this once and I will never play 
truant any more !" I grabbed him, bedclothes and all, 
and hugged him to my heart, and tried to kiss back his 
tears, and mine got mingled with his, and I told him it 
was all forgiven and passed. Then he said, "Daddy, 
do you love me just as much as before ?" and I an- 
swered, "You know I do." Then he asked, "Are you 
very sure ?" and I answered, "Yes, Hanley dear, I am 
very sure." Then the child said, "Take me down to 
supper." In plain English the child meant, if you 
love me, prove it. 

Your Lord says, "If you love me, keep my com- 
mandments, and he that hath my commandments and 
keepeth them, he it is that loveth me." 

If a man says he loves God, and walks in darkness, 
he is a liar and the truth is not in him. Walk in the 
light, or don't claim to be God's. 

Oh, love of God! So dependable, so true, so con- 
stant, and so ever new. May that be your lot and 
mine. May that be your experience and mine. Amen ! 



V 

THE HOPE OF GLORY 

Col. i : 27-28. — "To whom God would make known what is 
the riches of the glory of this mystery among the 
Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: 
Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching 
every man in all wisdom; that we may present every 
man perfect in Christ Jesus." 

"Christ in you, the hope of glory whom we preach/* 
That is Paul's hope. There is no other. I pause 
that you may take that in, because some of you have 
been turning aside from Paul's hope, God's hope, the 
world's hope, to the manufacturing of your own hopes, 
and the love you have for your own denominational 
reputation. 

Jesus is the ladder upon which this poor old world 
is going to climb from darkness to light and from sin 
to God. It is His hand that will stretch down into 
the abyss and will lift broken-hearted men and women 
up out of the mire, and set their feet on the rock, and 
put a new song into their hearts and into their mouths. 

Jesus is the jewel for which this vast universe is but 
the mere setting. He is the morning — the dawn in 
the darkness. 

He is the cure for the ills of the world, the antidote 

for the serpent's sting. There is no other; and you 

may search the universe for something else to assuage 

38 



THE HOPE OF GLORY 37 

the woe of the world, to dry its tears, to still its 
storms, to calm its boisterous seas, to heal its broken 
hearts, to give rest to every weary soul. Or, to use 
Paul's words, "He is the hope of glory." And hope 
for the world cannot be found anywhere else but in 
Jesus Christ. 

Paul said, "Whom we preach," and you know Paul 
had tried the schools and found the schools had failed. 
Schools have it not; social reformers have not the 
cure; politicians have not the cure; quacks and nos- 
trums can't provide that for which the soul longs, and 
that which the soul demands for deliverance and 
hope. Why spend money for that which is not bread ? 
Why spend money for that which satisfleth not? 

"Harken diligently unto me and eat ye that which 
is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness." 

My brothers, my sisters, the hope of the soul and 
the hope of the world to-day is Jesus. If you would 
learn that you would stop running after the quacks. 

There are more quacks in America to the square 
inch than anywhere else in the world. I know; I 
have preached on five continents, and I have seen more 
of the world than most men. I know. 

You will run after anybody that will shout loud 
enough instead of listening to and obeying Jesus. I 
would rather listen to Jesus than to any earthly man — 
and certainly than to any earthly woman. 

The hope of the world is Jesus, not environment. 
That is a big word. When you want to say something 
that sounds "tony" you say "environment" — it has 
an ii o'clock sound. If anybody ever had a good 
environment it was Adam. There were no saloons. 



38 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

There was no jazz. He was in a garden, surrounded 
with beauty, with flowers and birds — and he fell. 

Environment isn't everything. You know you 
can't cure a patient of the smallpox by putting him into 
clean sheets. You don't change the nature of a pig 
by putting him in the parlour. I know which would 
be the quickest to change, and it would not be the pig. 

Educationalists — I know what they are advocating 
— educate — educate — educate. Jesus Christ on Cal- 
vary is saying, Regenerate — regenerate — regenerate. 
I know what the educationalists are saying. Give us 
pretty surroundings, better art, better books, flowers, 
and an automobile to ride in — some of the people who 
have these things are the biggest sinners. I have yet 
to learn that there is any essential connection between 
a Prince Albert coat, a silk hat, and a clean heart. 

Some of the poorest people I have ever known in 
this world have been the most saintly; some of the 
richest have been the greatest scoundrels. 

The hope of the world is Jesus Christ — not Oxford, 
not Yale, not Harvard, not Princeton, not Athens, not 
Plato, not Cambridge. It is over an old-fashioned hill 
called Calvary. 

The hope of the world is Jesus whom we preach, 
"warning every man and teaching every man." In 
these words you have the universality of the hope of 
every man — "that we may present every man perfect 
in Christ." 

You see not only the vastness of this hope but the 
glory of it, the perfection of every man in Christ 
Jesus. There's the glory, as Paul tells the Ephesian 



THE HOPE OF GLORY 39 

church, "that in the ages to come He might show the 
exceeding riches of His kindness toward us in Christ 
Jesus." 

Teaching and admonishing you is what I have been 
doing this week. I know you don't like that. I have 
let down a bucket and stirred up the mud, but it was 
my bucket, not my mud. If you will be a Goliath in 
sin, don't be surprised if God sends some little David 
along with his sling and stone and floors you with your 
mouth in the dust and your heels in the air. You need 
to be brought down low in the dust, and I would to* 
God I knew how to bring you there, for I know the 
only way up is to come down lowly in the dust before 
God. 

I have seen the worst kind and the best kind of 
people in the world — if there is any best and worst. 
There can be only two kinds of sinners in the world ; 
the man who is found out and the man who is not. 
I wonder how many people here would be in jail to-day 
if their real selves were known. I wonder if your 
friends would recognize you on the street, or sit be- 
side you in church if they knew you as you really are. 
But the wonderful thing is, no matter how far you 
have strayed from God's commands, how greatly you 
have erred, the grace of Christ can save. This is the 
hope of the world. 

If you came here this morning eaten up with a 
loathsome disease; if you came with a consciousness 
of having broken all the ten commandments, Christ 
can make you new and whole again through amazing 
grace. 



40 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

Let no man despair because of his great sin; it is 
not what you are, but what He is. "Christ is the end 
of the law for righteousness to every one that be- 
lieveth. ,, Christ is the Saviour for sinners because 
He bore your sin on the cross and rose again for your 
justification, and then was exalted to sit on the throne 
and become a Prince, and a Saviour. God, His Father, 
in giving Him that seat on His right hand on the 
throne, is saying to a world of hopeless sinners, Justice, 
Righteousness, Eternal Law and Love are all satisfied. 
Here is your hope, Jesus — so no man need despair be- 
cause he is a sinner. God has met and provided the 
remedy. 

Tell them that for me — Jesus is the sinner's Hope. 
The Devil often comes to me and tells me, "You are 
not what you ought to be" ; and I answer him and say, 
"I am not as bad as I was." He tells me, "You are 
not what you ought to be," but then it is not what I 
am but what Christ is that gives me hope. And if He 
gets into your heart and your life, He will work a 
miracle. 

"Whom we preach, warning every man, teaching 
every man, that we may present every man perfect in 
Christ Jesus." That pieces up with the other word 
in Ephesians III, "According to the power that work- 
eth in us." God is able to work in you and take away 
all sin and make you like Jesus. The Holy Spirit will 
reproduce Jesus in you — the hope of glory, Christ in 
you; and you will be able to say with the Apostle, 
"I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." 

It is Jesus that has to do it — not the preacher — not 
the Church — not the outward form, but the inner 



THE HOPE OF GLORY 41 

workings of the Holy Spirit. Jesus must be wrought 
in you. Jesus — this is the hope of the world. 

Have you Christ within this morning? Is He your 
Saviour ? Do you love Him ? Do you long for Him 
above everything else? Do you long to look into His 
face and feel His touch, and hear Him speak to you 
more than anything else in this world this morning? 

If you feel like that, that is the evidence that Christ 
is within you. And my text shall be, "He that loveth 
is born of God." And if you love God and if your 
heart is given to Him, then you may class yourself as 
a Christian. "He that loveth is born of God." Close 
your eyes and say, "My Jesus, I love Thee, I know 
thou art mine." If you do this, then blessed art thou, 
oh, love of God. 

And I ask in closing this morning, What brought 
you here to-day? Did you come to see a man or to 
see God ? Did you come to hear the voice of a preacher 
or to hear the voice of Him who spoke from the great 
white throne ? You know. I will tell you what brought 
me. I need God and I want to help you a little nearer 
to Him. I want more of God for myself and I want 
more of God for you. Are you contented with His 
gifts and do not want Him? 

I told you a story last night of my sweet little 
daughter, Zillah. Let me tell you another. 

I had just returned from America and had reached 
my home in Manchester where I was living at that 
time. I had been separated from my family for nine 
long months, nine long, homesick, strenuous months. 
And when I reached home I found my pastor busy, 
conducting a sale of miscellaneous articles in order 



42 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

to provide a home for the waifs of that city. And 
because there was no other man just like him in the 
world to me, I felt that my place was by his side. 

So I took my family and went to him, and Zillah, 
my baby, was hanging on to my coat, my arm. Her 
little arms were twined around some part of me. Her 
little touch was just what I had been hungry for. 
Her voice was the music my heart had pined for. 

As we were walking I met a bachelor friend who I 
knew did not understand children and did not care 
for them much, and I was afraid my little child's con- 
stant talking and prattle, which was music to me, 
would annoy him. I took some coins from my pocket 
and told my little Zillah to take what money she liked 
and go to one of the various stalls and spend it as 
she desired. 

She refused to take the money and, looking at me, ) 
said, "Daddy, I don't want your old money. You J 
have been away nine months, I want to be with you. 
It is you I want." 

What is it you want? The Lord's money or the 
Lord. The fine things He can give you, or do you 
want Him ? What are you hunting, digging, scraping 
for? Is it the hope of your heart and life? Is it 
the hope of the world? The thing you are striving 
for is not satisfying to the hunger within until you 
know Jesus Christ, whom we preach, striving to pre- 
sent every man perfect in Christ Jesus. 



VI 

WHAT SHALL I DO THEN WITH JESUS? 

Matthew 27:22. — "Pilate saith unto them, 'What shall I 
do then with Jesus which is called Christ?' They all 
say unto him, 'Let him be crucified/ " 

These words are the record of one of the most dia- 
bolical crimes ever committed in the history of the 
world. 

The soldiers took Him into the common barrack 
room, the meeting place of the vulgar, and there they 
stripped Him, took His clothes off and let Him stand 
there naked. Think of His standing there, the object 
to be gazed upon and insulted by their cruel jests and 
vulgar remarks, and could men or devils or both, ever 
offer Him, the divine Son of God, a greater or more 
devilish insult? That refined, sensitive, tender, inno- 
cent, gracious, loving friend and brother, Saviour of 
the world, standing there naked and alone, and all 
because you and I have sinned and come short of 
the glory of God. 

And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they 
put it on His head and a reed in His right hand ; and 
they bowed the knee before Him and mocked Him, 
saying, "Hail, King of the Jews" — they had heard 
Him say He was a king. They gave Him a stick, a 
reed for a sceptre. Then they bowed their knees. 

43 



44 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

If you are sensitive, if you have any delicacy, any 
tenderness, any refinement, you must shudder, as you 
read these words and think of the indignity, the humili- 
ation, the insult to His divine, holy and sensitive nature. 
And He suffered all this at the hands of cruel, wicked, 
vulgar and sensual men. And how much He must 
have recoiled from it, He, the Son of God, who had 
the worship of angels and the adoration of archangels. 

They mocked Him and made fun of Him — the Son 
of God. When they couldn't think of anything else 
they walked up to Him and spat in His face. This 
was the climax. After that they took the red tunic 
off Him and put His own raiment on Him and made 
Him bear His cross to Calvary and there they cruci- 
fied Him. The murderous soldiers were only the 
puppets in the hands of more diabolical perpetrators. 
You know who they were, the High Priests, the reli- 
gious officials of the day, surrounded by a blood- 
thirsty, angry, sensual mob. 

Listen! Have you ever said thank you? If you 
were to fall down the steps as you go out of this 
building and some one should help you, if you had a 
bit of strength left, you would say "Thank you." If 
he were a stranger you would thank him. 

But have you ever stopped to say "Thank you" to 
Jesus? Have you ever shed one tear of gratitude? 
Have you ever shed one tear of penitence? Have 
you ever bowed your knee at the feet of the Lord, 
at the feet of Him who was wounded for your trans- 
gressions, and bruised for your iniquities ? Have you 
ever said to Him, "Oh, Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy 
on me!" 



WHAT SHALL I DO THEN WITH JESUS? 45 

Those soldiers gave your reproaches and mine; and 
they were doing for you and for me what our sin 
made possible. Your sin and my sin rejected Jesus 
and said, "Away with Him. Let Him be crucified." 
The soldiers who stripped and insulted Him in the 
barrack room and spat in His face, and then led Him 
away to Calvary, and nailed Him to the cross between 
two thieves, the man who pierced His side, the man 
who gave Him the vinegar to drink when He cried, 
"I thirst," the rabble mob that cried, "Not this man, 
but Barabbas," — were all representative of the world's 
worst, its cruel hatred against right, its love of wrong, 
and its rejection of God's Christ. 

It seemed as though all Hell boiled over that day 
and as though the devils had triumphed. Oh, man! 
Oh, woman ! Will you please close your eyes and re- 
member it was your sin and mine which helped to 
make possible that awful day, the darkest the world 
ever knew. 

What they did at the cross — the crime they com- 
mitted in their depravity — was yours and mine. I 
claim before God, and before the minds of all who 
understand equity, before God and angels until we 
say, "I protest," "I object," "I declare it is wrong," 
you are held before God as guilty of what the soldiers 
did that day. 

It was for your sins and mine that He submitted 
to this indignity. Have you ever claimed Jesus pub- 
licly as your Saviour? Until you do, you are guilty, 
as guilty as the High Priests that condemned Him. 
You are guilty before God until you take sides with 
those who love and serve Him. If you want my text 



46 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

for that, Christ Himself said, "He that is not with me 
is against me." 

Now if you are for Him, live for Him. If you 
are for Him, show it. Let the world see it every 
day, show it in your conduct with one another, show 
it in the management of your affairs. 

Prove you are with Him. Prove you are for Him, 
and against the workers of iniquity. You must leave 
and discard and turn your back on all that is in oppo- 
sition to His glorious and eternal will. 

This morning you stand among the group of sol- 
diers who spat in His face, or you stand with Martin 
Luther, Wesley, Moody, and your saintly mother. 
You are standing with the men who nailed Him to the 
cross or you are standing with the faithful who hold 
His trust. You are for Him or against Him — which 
is it? 

You say, "I think I am for Him." Be perfectly 
sincere now. Would you say and do as you did yester- 
day and are doing to-day and did the day before if 
you were for Him? If you were with Him and for 
Him would you be living in that atmosphere you are 
living in? Would you be planning what you are 
planning at this moment? You must answer this 
question. 

You must answer it before you leave this building. 
God says answer it now. Now, this moment. And 
you must give Him an answer. You will go out of 
those doors for Christ or against Him. You will take 
away with you Christ or the Devil. You will let 
Jesus conquer your heart or you will go away arm 
in arm with Satan. 



WHAT SHALL I DO THEN WITH JESUS? 47 

You make that choice. Nobody else can do it for 
you. Pilate cannot answer this question for you. 
The crowd cannot. I cannot. These preachers can- 
not. You are answering it, you must answer it for 
yourself. 

What will you do ? Once more you have been com- 
pelled to think about Jesus. You are being compelled 
every day in many ways. Your city is being com- 
pelled to think about Him. 

What is the cause of these great crowds which 
assemble here twice each day? They are thinking 
of the Saviour, Jesus Christ. You face your news- 
papers at your breakfast table in the morning and the 
first thing that takes your eye is "J esus " and what He 
is doing in your city. People all around you are talk- 
ing about Him. 

Have you got to thinking of Him? You can't get 
rid of Him. He is the unavoidable Christ. 

Oh, my brother, my sister, mind you don't miss 
your Jesus, your chance is now. And some of you 
are doing it. What will Jesus do with me? You 
know that depends on what you do with Jesus. You 
look in your own heart if you want to know what 
He will do with you some day and ask yourself, 
"What am I doing with Him?" What do you expect 
Christ to do? 

Why, I have talked to men whose home held Chris- 
tian wives and children and they have said to me, 
"If I could go to Heaven just as I am, without a 
change of nature, Heaven would be impossible." 
Heaven would be Hell to any man or woman without 
a change of heart. Some of you are miserable in the 



48 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

presence of a good man or woman now. You do not 
like to go to Church. Why ? Because in the presence 
of goodness you are out of your setting. To enjoy 
Heaven, your heart, your mind, your nature, must be 
changed by grace, and made ready for the company 
of a holy God and the people who have washed their 
robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 

You have got to be in spirit and in thought and in 
feeling, in harmony with the Lamb if you are going to 
enjoy Heaven. You would be in Hell when you got 
there without a new birth. And He can give you this 
new nature for He is still the wonder-working Christ. 

I know He died for me. I know that they mocked 
Him, spurned Him, crowned His brow with thorns, 
cast a soldier's tunic about Him; I know that they 
struck Him, smote Him in the face, and spat upon 
Him, and insulted Him in every vile manner — and I 
know He never protested a word. 

"Like a sheep before his shearers, He was dumb, 
and there was no guile in His mouth. ,, I know He 
was God's lamb to take away the sin of the world. 

And I also know that He is the Lion of the tribe 
of Judah and can break every chain that binds the 
human heart and can give victory over the world, 
the flesh and the Devil. 

You may walk out of this house a friend of Jesus 
if you bow at His feet. You may become reconciled 
to Him if you will. You may go out a saved man 
and a saved woman if you will. The choice and the 
responsibility of the choice is yours. 



VII 
AND LOT LIFTED UP HIS EYES 
Gen. 13: 10. — "And Lot lifted up his eyes." 

Lot's mistake and the consequent loss of his wife 
and possessions and family followed, when he pitched 
his tent towards Sodom. 

You remember that interview with his uncle Abra- 
ham. They were living together and their stock and 
herdsmen were becoming too many to live together 
peaceably. Lot was the younger of the two and 
should have revered the opinions of his old uncle. 
Abraham said unto him, "Choose." He gave him the 
choice of the watering places and fertile grazing fields. 
Why didn't Lot say to his uncle as he should have said, 
"Uncle, give me your advice; you are an older man 
than I." But he didn't do that — he settled it himself. 
He looked toward the well watered plains of Sodom 
and selfishly chose them. He pitched his tent towards 
Sodom and in that way lay danger. 

Don't pitch your tent towards Sodom — the next 
step you will be in Sodom. No man who professes 
to believe in Jesus Christ can go into Sodom without 
one of two things happening: either you must make 
Sodom better or Sodom will make you worse. You 
can settle that once and forever. Either you will up- 
lift Sodom or Sodom will lead you far from the path 

in which you can walk and talk with Jesus. 

49 



50 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

And to begin with, if you are a Christian, you 
have no right in Sodom unless you go there to preach 
the gospel — unless you go there to preach and 
interpret God's mind and word. 

But that was not Lot's purpose in going to Sodom. 
He went there because his heart was there. He liked 
the ways of the people of Sodom. He liked the glit- 
ter and the flash and the sparkle of society there. 
The Bible calls Lot righteous later on. If he is 
called righteous, it is because when God forgives a 
sin, he does it wholly and completely. Lot showed 
very little of virtue in Sodom. He did not hurt him- 
self trying to make it a better city. 

If you take your family to the Devil, do not be 
surprised if the Devil damns them. Don't tear God 
from the hearts of your children and be surprised 
some day if the Devil gets the vacant place. 

I have known many a mother come to me and ask 
me to pray for her boy. And I know she is living 
a worldly life, and how can she expect her boy to 
become a dutiful Christian? "How old is your boy?" 
I asked that woman. "He is about twenty-one years of 
age," she said. "How did you live when he was a 
little fellow?" I asked her. And I knew that she was 
not the mother she ought to have been. If you mix 
up with the doubtful and the frivolous things, don't 
be surprised if some day you wake up to find you 
are the parent of half-damned children. 

The other night I was spoken to by a woman who 
said, "I am the mother of four children; my husband 
was unconverted when I married him." I replied, 
"You were a contracting party; you were disobedient. 



AND LOT LIFTED UP HIS EYES 51 

What right had you to marry an unconverted person 
when God had said distinctly and definitely to you, 'Be 
ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. 
Many sorrows shall be to the wicked/ " 

If people will choose their own way and pitch their 
own tents toward Sodom, they must expect trouble. 
And if you don't expect it, it will come. The unalter- 
able law of disobedience is the hiding of God's face. 

If you pitch your tent toward Sodom, you are going 
to have trouble. If you choose the well watered plains 
of Sodom, because it will bring you social prominence, 
it will bring you trouble, that is all. It means the 
loss of the fellowship of God. Your windows ought 
to be opened towards Jerusalem. They can't be 
opened towards Sodom. That way lies pleasure, lies 
self-indulgence ; that way lies the world ; that way lies 
darkness, lies guilt; that way lies the wrath of God 
and fire of God. 

Don't pitch your tents towards Sodom. 

I have known mothers and fathers, church members, 
who have stood in the way of their children's service 
to God. I have been preaching long enough to know 
these things. I have seen mothers and fathers who 
were church members who would not approve of their 
daughters becoming missionaries, but who were quite 
willing for them to marry men who were morally rot- 
ten because they had money. They were willing to 
sell them for an automobile. 

I am talking to women who will spurn a sister- 
woman if she falls, but will take back the man who 
ruined her. They will bring him into their homes 
and jazz with him. Jazz with a man like that! You 



52 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

church women will do that. That is looking towards 
Sodom. You will let your pure daughter jazz with a 
moral leper and you will kick the woman who has 
been ruined by that moral leper out of your home, out 
of your presence, out of your Church. 

But God's sympathies are with the poor woman who 
is kicked into the gutter. His lips never said an angry 
word against the woman who had fallen. His wither- 
ing sarcasm was hurled at the hypocrites who con- 
demned her. 

You remember Lot's wife and what she stands for. 
She stands for Sodom. She stands for the things some 
of you are standing for. She stands for some of the 
things you are clinging to. 

You have got Prohibition — why don't you prohibit? 
Why are you not loyal Americans and stand by the 
Eighteenth Amendment? If you expect America to 
stand by you and protect you and your family, why 
should not you keep all its laws and be loyal or leave 
the country? 

Do you know what you Christian mothers ought to 
do ? You ought to make it so hot in your city that 
bootleggers couldn't exist. You want the strong drink 
put away from your sons, don't you? You want the 
saloons closed, don't you ? Well then, close your cel- 
lars and sideboards ! 

If you are what you ought to be, you will not taste 
or handle it yourself, or be guilty of the awful crime of 
giving alcohol to any human being in God's earth. 
You are helping Sodom, that is all. I don't care 
who you are. I don't care what your social position is. 
You represent Sodom. If you are allied with the 



AND LOT LIFTED UP HIS EYES 53 

forces of evil in any shape or form, you belong to 
Sodom. Remember the wrath of God on the people 
of Sodom. There is nothing much said of Lot here. 
But I should think enough has been said of him. If 
you go to Sodom, you ought to make it better than 
it is. When Jesus accepted an invitation to a worldly 
feast or social function, He preached a sermon or 
worked a miracle; He turned the occasion into one of 
healing, helping or the saving of some one or the de- 
livery of a message which made some poor, broken 
heart glad. 

Where you have one friend, I have thousands. But 
nobody invites me to a wine supper. Nobody invites 
me to a dance or to play cards. And I am as lively 
as any of you. Don't you think there isn't a bit of 
skip in me because then you wouldn't know me. I am 
tempted by the same things that you are. Why don't 
they invite me to dance? Why don't they invite me to 
wine suppers and to play cards? Why not? 

You say, "Oh, Mr. Smith, it is obvious — " 

You think I wouldn't go. 

And you won't go either if you are the Christian 
you ought to be. 

Oh, my God, make us out and out anew! Turn 
your faces on Sodom and look towards Jerusalem. 
Dare to be a Daniel. You know how Daniel acted at 
that court. The men who hated him said, "We shall 
never catch him unless we catch him at his prayers." 

Then they went and said to the King, "Oh, King, 
live forever." That is the way we always approach 
those we want to get something of by flattery. They 
said, "We want you to make a decree that nobody shall 



54 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

pray in this city for so many days, or be cast into 
the den of lions." 

The King signed the decree. But Daniel went just 
as before to his knees and he kept his window open 
toward Jerusalem. And he prayed. 

'My brother, my sister, only prayer will make you 
strong, and noble, and true, and constant, and faithful, 
and Christ-like in the midst of the unreality and 
sham of the superficial life about you. And if you 
try to go with one and hold to the other, well, you 
will come to grief. If you pitch your tents towards 
Sodom, and then get there, you will lose your soul. 
If you are saved as by fire, it won't be a very glorious 
salvation. The world will lose more than you gain be- 
cause of your inconsistency. 

You may be saved by the skin of your teeth, but 
what about your family you left in Sodom? 



VIII 

COME 

Rev. 22 : 17. — "And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And 
let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is 
athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the 
water of life freely." 

There is a garden in the first chapter of the Bible 
and it was lost. But you get a bigger one in the last. 
You get a bit of a trickle of a stream in the first book, 
but you have a mighty river in the last chapter. You 
get fruit and a tree in the first garden, but in the last 
you have a tree whose leaves are for the healing of 
the nations. There is a great deal more in the last, 
in Jesus Christ, than was ever lost in the first. 

"And they shall see His face; and His name shall 
be in their foreheads.' ' 

I wonder if you carry His name in your forehead. 
I wonder if your face shows that you live the life of 
a Christian. I wonder if the people who know you 
say of you, "She is a Christian woman." "He is a 
Christian man." "She is a saint." "He is a saint." 
"That is a God-like man." "That is a God-like 
woman." They stand for the things of God, and "His 
name shall be in their foreheads." 

"I am the offspring of David, and the bright and 
morning star." If He had only said that, we wouldn't 
know how to reach Him, but He said, "I am the off- 
spring of David." 

55 



'56 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

You have seen an old tree cut down clear to the 
roots, and then have seen grow up from it little tender 
shoots. "I am the root and offspring of David/ * 
And you can approach God, the Infinite, through the 
root and offspring of David — Jesus. God has stooped 
to your need and mine by making it possible to know 
Him through His Son, Christ, and when Jesus saw 
that His disciples were overcome with the mystery 
of that thought, when He saw it was more than they 
could bear, He said, "He that hath seen me hath seen 
the Father." 

In coming to Jesus, you come to God. In under- 
standing Jesus, we understand God. We only under- 
stand God through Jesus. No man can come to the 
Father, except through the Son. 

"I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one 
cometh unto the Father, but by me." 

So if you have found Him, what is your business? 
If you have come into contact with Him, what is your 
business ? 

If you have discovered the grace of God, what is 
your business? If you have felt His healing touch, 
what is your business? What is next? You enjoy 
the happiness of a Christian, what next? Do you 
just fondle and nurse yourself and sing to yourself 
and talk about the sweet by-and-by and thank God 
you are not as other men? And what comes after? 
Is there nothing more to be done? Is that the pro- 
gramme of the Christian life? 

"The Spirit and the bride say, Come." Jesus has 
gone back to glory, but the Church has to function. 
What is the function of the Church? It is her busi- 



COME 57 

ness to find every lost man and woman, and to make 
them know that Jesus Christ has made possible their 
salvation, and longs for them to come to Him and 
accept the offers of love and the privilege of saving 
grace. And the Church absolutely fails which does 
not see and feel the passion which compels its indi- 
vidual members to carry out this divine programme. 

Saving the world is the function of the Church and 
her everlasting cry should be in the music of the words 
of the text, "The Spirit and the bride say, Come." That 
is the Church's business: not to please ourselves, not 
to nurse ourselves, not to take our ease and live in 
contentment. 

When you sing, "Throw out the lifeline," you have 
got to be ready to make room for another one in the 
boat. It seems to have been largely forgotten that the 
business of the Church of God is to say "Come." 

The charm of the Salvation Army to-day is that 
they are always on the job. Their arm is always 
ready to stretch out to the helpless. Why aren't we 
on the job? We were there before they were, you 
know. 

The poor man in the street, the poor woman in the 
street! I am going to make a statement. If a poor 
drunkard or fallen woman would wake up to a sense 
of their lost condition and feel a longing desire to climb 
up out of the slough of despond into which they had 
fallen, and, conscious of their own helplessness, 
knew in spite of their desire to get back to God that 
they must have human help and human sympathy, 
somebody upon whom they could lean, who would 
stand by them and brother and mother them, to whom 



58 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

would they go? Would they knock at your door? 
You church-members, would they come to your church, 
which is nearly always closed? I ask again, where 
would they go? In nine times out of ten, such persons 
with such longings would go to the Salvation Army. 

Which means the poor sinner has faith in the Sal- 
vation Army and hasn't much faith in us. 

Now then, if we are to save those people we must 
win back their confidence and respect. In other words, 
the Church of God must sound out the invitation of 
the cross. "Whosoever will may come." And must 
do it in such a way that the passion rings out in reality 
in every syllable of every word. 

And if one poor woman comes up to you, woman 
of the Church, and says, "You are a sister woman, but 
you are a member of the Church, will you help me to 
a better life?" Would you do it? But they don't 
come to you. You know they don't. They are not 
going to you business men either. They don't expect 
help from you. 

And the men and women (the down and outers, 
as you call them) ought to be able to say, "The Church 
of God in this city will help me when I want to get 
out of the slough." The churches will have to say 
"Come" a little louder. 

"The Spirit and the bride say, Come." Have you 
said "Come" to anybody this morning? Have you 
been and knocked at anybody's door this morning and 
said, "I am praying for your soul. You must come 
to Jesus." 

"The Spirit and the bride say, Come." And you 
are standing as the representative of Jesus Christ. 



COME 59 

Are you functioning? Has anybody heard the great 
message from your lips? It is not necessary that 
you should be able to preach. It doesn't require a 
preacher to say, "Come." Don't forget that. 

Nobody knows the name of the man who pointed 
C. H. Spurgeon to Jesus, but the world has heard 
of Spurgeon, the great London preacher. On that 
snowy Sunday morning, on his way to church, the 
snow fell so heavily that he turned into the little 
church nearest to his home instead of going to his 
own church. The same storm was so heavy that it pre- 
venfed the preacher from coming, and the few people 
who had gathered chose one of their own number to 
take the pulpit; the good brother was no preacher 
but he gave out a text and the text was, "Look unto 
Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth." The 
preacher quoted his text two or three times, then, look- 
ing around and seeing a strange young man under the 
gallery, said, "Young man, you look and you will be 
saved." And Spurgeon looked and was saved, and 
in after years, referring to it, said, "I looked on Him 
and He looked on me and we were one forever." 

Sin came into the world through a look and sin 
is going out the same way. Anybody can say "Look" 
and anybody can say "Come." If the Come is in 
your heart, it will find a way to your lips. 

"The Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him 
that heareth say, Come." 

You have said, Come to the Jazz. You have said, 
Come to the Dance. You have said, Come and play 
cards. Have you ever said, "Come and let's talk about 
Jesus together"? Have you society women ever said 



60 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

anything like that? If you have not, what have you 
done for your city and for your Saviour? Let him 
that heareth say come, and don't say you can't, be- 
cause you can; and if it is in your soul you will say it. 
You can't keep it in if you are full of the grace 
of God. 

If you are a Christian, you will want to say the 
word Come. You can't help yourself. I pray God 
this morning that word will begin to enter into your 
heart and before the day is over you can go out and 
say to someone, "Jesus loves you, Come." 

In these days when showers of blessing are falling 
all about you, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make 
his paths straight." Make possible the meeting of 
Christ, your Lord, with those you love. Invite them 
to meet one another, and if you are anxious for your 
loved ones to become acquainted with the saving grace 
of Jesus Christ, do your utmost to bring about the 
friendship. 

"The Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him 
that is athirst come." 

Brother, are you thirsty? 

"I heard the voice of Jesus say, 

'Behold, I freely give 
The Living water; thirsty one, 

Stoop down, and drink, and live !' " 

I know this is true because: 

U I came to Jesus, and I drank 

Of that life-giving stream; 
My thirst was quenched, my soul revived, 

And now I live in Him." 



COME Gli 

Listen a moment, poor thirsty one. Put God's cup 
of living water to the lips of your parched spirit, and 
drink freely just now. 

Whosoever ! ! ! That means you ! When Jesus said 
"Whosoever/ 5 He included you and me; He means 
us all. 

Let the application of this morning's service be this : 
Go and say come to somebody before the night's serv- 
ice. Go and call on somebody and say "Come." Talk 
over the telephone, speak to somebody for Jesus Christ. 
Write a letter to somebody to-day; make somebody's 
poor burdened heart lighter because they know some- 
body cares. 

I awoke this morning, oh, so homesick, so lonesome. 
I would have given all I have in the world to have 
felt the hand of somebody and I am only a man. 
There are other people who feel like that. In the 
midst of a crowd they can be hungry and lonesome, 
and you and I have the key that will fit the lock of 
their hearts for Jesus Christ. Let us tell the world 
about Him. 

Oh, Jesus, teach us how to tell about the gladness 
you will bring. Amen! 



IX 

WHAT WILT THOU THAT I SHOULD DO 
UNTO THEE? 

Mark 10 : 46-52. — "And as he went out of Jericho . . . blind 
Bartimeus sat by the highway side begging. . . . And 
Jesus answered and said unto him, 'What wilt thou 
that I should do unto thee?' The blind man said 
unto him, 'Lord, that I might receive my sight.' And 
Jesus said unto him., 'Go thy way; thy faith hath 
made thee whole.' " 

My dear, old father once said to me in our garden 
at home, "My son, there are sinners in Zion, and there 
are sinners out of Zion, and the sinners in Zion are 
keeping the sinners out of Zion from coming in. And 
they won't come in until they get converted or get out." 

And for the last two weeks I have been after the 
sinners in Zion. It is no use to preach to the uncon- 
verted outside of the Church, while unconverted people 
remain in the Church. 

One of your ministers wrote me the other day, 
"What my Church needs is conversion.' , And he 
went on to tell me the things that members of his 
church were doing. If I did what those people are 
doing I would think I needed conversion too. There 
are lots of you who are contented with church mem- 
bership and who know nothing about spiritual life. 
You have never been born again. You will never suc- 
ceed with God until you honestly confess the truth 

62 



WHAT WILT THOU? 63 

that you need conversion. And the people who are 
around you will be hindered until you, yourselves, get 
right with Christ. 

The people who fought Jesus and opposed Him 
every day were the very people who professed religion 
ibut had no spiritual life. I wonder what you are do- 
ing with Jesus — if you are wearing a cloak that is 
hindering you. It may be ever so beautiful, but it is 
not according to the will of God, to the purpose of 
Jesus before the foundation of the world. For you 
and me, it won't do. 

I ask you this morning, Are you as conscious of 
your need of Christ as was this blind man, because if 
you are, why don't you pelt Heaven with your cries? 
Why aren't you crying: "Jesus, Son of David, have 
mercy on me!" 

Jesus said, "What wilt thou that I should do* unto 
thee?" The blind man said, "Lord, that I might 
receive my sight." 

That was what he needed and Christ gave it to him. 
Do you know what you need ? Why don't you get on 
your knees and say, "Lord, I need conversion, I have 
lived an evil life. I have lost touch with the Infinite. 
Lord, save me." Why don't you talk like that to your 
God? Why don't you take off the garments of im- 
purity and sin and tell God to make you clean? 

"He that covereth his sin shall not prosper, but 
he that confesseth and forsaketh his sin, shall find 
mercy." 

You know I had a church for four years and I 
know some of the burdens that preachers have to bear. 
I know some of the worries they have to carry to bed 



64 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

with them at night. I know something of the things 
that embarrass people and break their hearts and take 
the vitality out of their message. I know. I know 
the things that clip a preacher's wings. 

I was invited one day, when I was preaching in my 
church, by one of my lady members for lunch, and 
we sat there in the sunshine in her drawing room 
before the meal, looking out upon the lawn. Presently 
we saw another lady and her daughter coming toward 
the house. 

"Oh, dear," said my hostess, "there's Mrs. So- 
and-So coming; I hope she doesn't come here." 

But the lady and her daughter did come to that 
house and my hostess rushed to the door and greeted 
them with open arms. 

"Come in," she thrilled, "I am delighted to see you. 
You'll stay for lunch, of course." 

Yes, you saw yourselves, didn't you, that moment? 
Do you think you will grow spiritually while you 
act like that? 

And that hostess pressed her friend to stay, and 
when the friend protested and finally left, she breathed 
a sigh and said, "I am glad she didn't stay." 

So I said to her: "Now I know why you make 
such little progress in the Christian life. You have got 
to stop lying." And she knew I was right. 

And the reason some of you make no spiritual prog- 
ress is because you are not honest with yourselves, 
with God and with other people. And you will never 
win anybody to Jesus Christ until they believe in you. 
And do you know what is your need this morning? 
Are you willing to back squarely down and say, "Oh, 



WHAT WILT THOU? 65 

Lord, my sin is lying, selfishness, love of the world, 
love of dress, love of money, love of getting on in 
the world. Oh, Lord, help me !" 

Some of you spend all your time climbing, and the 
farther you climb the farther you will have to fall 
some day. 

Are you honest with Christ? This blind man was. 
Do you know how to be? "And when he saw his 
need he stated it." Wouldn't it be a wonderful thing 
if your need and God's fulness met this morning? 

If you will cast away every subterfuge and never 
mind the sneering of the vulgar crowd, your need 
would be filled. The crowd will always sneer at people 
trying to get to Jesus. They said to that blind man, 
"Hold your peace" but he cried out the more. And 
the more in earnest you are the more you will succeed 
with Christ. If I had been influenced by the currents 
that flowed around me when I started out to preach, 
I wouldn't have been here. What right had a little 
uneducated Gipsy boy to preach? 

I broke every rule of the King's grammar. What 
did I know about grammar ? I broke the rules of cor- 
rect speech! But I broke hearts also. 

The old gray-heads said to me, "You are going too 
fast, my boy," and I answered them and said, "You 
are going too slow, and I have to go faster to make 
up for you." 

You know I receive letters every day saying, "Why 
don't you preach all the gospel? Why don't you 
preach this and that ?" Those letter writers are angry 
because I do not emphasise their own denominational 
differences. We have been divided long enough and it 



66 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

is time some one or something brought us together. 
The men who talk about the things which divide, when 
there are so many essential things which unite us, are 
fools for their pains. 

I would burn all your creeds this morning if I could 
and bring you to the foot of the cross. 

My brethren, it is Christ that matters. 

You know it is astonishing how much the Devil 
likes to keep Christians apart, and if he can do it, he 
is going to claim the victory. If he can get Christian 
people to quarrelling, he holds a Jubilee in the bottom 
of the pit. Every man that loves Jesus Christ is my 
brother. 

I went to the boys on the battlefields of France and 
saw them in the mud and the blood dying and crying 
for love. I kissed them for their mothers. Do you 
think I said, "Are you a Protestant, or a Roman Catho- 
lic, or a Jew?" I looked at the dying boy and said, 
"Christ died for you," and that is the message I have 
for the world, and if you have sense enough to receive 
it, it will save you. 

The world needs this message, "Christ died for the 
ungodly." 

Once more I ask, "Do you know your need this 
morning?" The only cure is Jesus Christ and if you 
have the will and the heart to bow at His feet this 
morning with your burden of sin and cry for mercy, 
it will be given you. God help you to believe. Amen ! 



X 

IF ANY MAN THIRST 

John 7:37. — "In the last day, that great day of the feast, 
Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let 
him come unto me and drink." 

Jesus knew exactly how to put His finger on human 
needs. He knew of the need of that great multitude 
as they had come and gone, and were there on the 
last day of the feast, when probably the biggest crowd 
had gathered and the feast had failed to satisfy, and 
He knew that they were still thirsty. And He said, 
"If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink.' ' 

And you know — you who are present this morning 
are like the multitudes at the feast, showing evi- 
dences of thirst. And the mad rush that has taken 
hold of the people of to-day, the everlasting search 
for something that will satisfy, shows a deep hunger. 

There are some of you who want two picture shows 
a night. You used to be satisfied with one, and if 
the reel changes you want to go. Isn't that true? 

What does that mean? The picture didn't satisfy 
you. It excited you, made you forget while you were 
there, but afterwards it only tantalised you — it only 
aggravated you. 

Earthly things cannot satisfy you. The Bible and 

the Lord God Almighty have the things that will. 

Why spend money for that which is not bread? 

67 



68 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

Earthly waters are brackish. Earthly waters do not 
slake the thirst of the immortal soul. The Devil is a 
great artist and he paints beautiful pictures, but they 
are mirages of the desert. When you think you have 
them, they turn to the sand of the desert. 

And you need more than money. You need more 
than a beautiful home. You need more than an auto- 
mobile in which to ride. You need more than jewelry 
for your fingers and trinkets for your neck. You 
need more than real estate and a balance in the bank. 

You are not a dummy to be dressed up and put in 
a shop window. You are built of the materials out 
of which God builds eternity. You are not a doll. 
You are a soul. You need more than food and raiment 
and home and a seat in the theatre. 

Man doesn't live by bread alone, but by every word 
that proceeds out of the mouth of God. I wonder if 
you are conscious of the power of something not of 
the world in you. You look forward for weeks to 
a certain function which, when you get there, disgusts 
and palls upon you, and you go away saying, "What a 
fool I am." These things do not satisfy. In the olden 
times, there was a king who offered a great reward to 
anybody who would invent a new pleasure. And if 
a king must invite somebody to invent new pleasures 
for him, you may despair of finding them always. 
You can't do it. There is nothing new to offer. Men 
and women have tried long before you and I were 
born, and have failed. There is nothing new under the 
sun. 

"Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst 
again: but whosoever drinketh of the water that I 



IF ANY MAN THIRST 69 

shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I 
shall give him shall be in him a well of water spring- 
ing up into everlasting life." 

Jenny Lind, when she was the idol of England 
and America, and the pet and idol of millions, was 
offered an autograph album by some one and requested 
to write something in it. She wrote: 

"In vain I seek for rest in all created good, 

It leaves me still unblessed and makes me cry for God; 

Ah, sure at rest I cannot be 

Until my soul finds rest in Thee." 

Ella Wheeler Wilcox came home on the Aquitania 
from England to die and I happened to be a fellow- 
passenger. She had wasted away and but little re- 
mained of that beautiful body which had once been 
her pride. One day they had carried her up in her 
chair to the deck. She had literally shrivelled up and 
could be carried in arms. She knew she was going 
home for the last time and she sent for me and we 
talked awhile. 

"Gipsy Smith," she said, "'I have got to the place 
where I just want God." 

"Oh, if you had only found that out before," I 
told her. 

The trouble is that people are willing to take God 
into their homes, and hearts, and programmes, when 
life is played out, instead of when the fire of youth 
and an outlook for service is there. 

Why not give him the alabaster box filled with the 
precious perfume of a full-orbed life instead of the 
broken fragments of a wasted life? 



70 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

"If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink." 

You talk about your earthly rivers. In the summer 
time they get very low and sometimes so low that 
one can cross without; getting his feet wet. You 
can't do that with God's river. His river is always full. 

And I will tell you why this is. Earthly rivers flow 
to an ocean. They are fed by small streams and by 
springs which decrease or increase their flow as the 
water comes to them. God's river flows from an ocean 
and can never lack water. 

Every Christian man and woman who is what he 
or she ought to be is a river of grace. Where is your 
river? You are more like a little trickle, some of you; 
and sometimes you can hardly find that. Your soul 
gets to such a low level sometimes that you are hardly 
a trickle. 

Oh! to get in touch with His ocean, that out of us 
may flow rivers of His blessing. 

Jesus spoke of the rivers; He referred to the 
Spirit. The Ascension gift of Christ to His people 
was the Spirit — the Holy Ghost to come and dwell 
in His people as a living force, as a presence. The 
Holy Spirit is the executive of the Godhead. 

I wonder if you know the Holy Ghost. I wonder 
if He is in you. I wonder if you are a temple for 
the Holy Ghost. I wonder if you know that you are 
not your own, that you are a temple for the Holy 
Ghost to dwell in. You are a church member. Is the 
Holy Ghost in you? Wouldn't it make a difference if 
all the church members in your city were to be filled 
with the Spirit? 

I wonder what would happen if Paul came to preach 



IF ANY MAN THIRST 



71 



in some of the churches. One of the first things he 
would do would be to put his finger on the pulse of 
the church and diagnose what is wrong with it, and 
one of the first things he would ask would be this : "Did 
you receive the Holy Ghost when you believed ?" And 
the church, if it was honest, would have to answer, as 
did Paul's congregation, "We haven't heard of Him." 

We don't honour the Holy Ghost. We don't give 
Him a chance. He is absolutely crowded out of the 
church life. Some of us don't want him there. We 
think we wouldn't get our way as much as we do — 
and we wouldn't. 

The Spirit-filled person is mighty in the hands of 
God. 

I saw during the Welsh revival a girl in her teens, 
who went to a certain little town in the Rhonda Val- 
ley, and by the power of the Holy Ghost was made 
the channel of blessing to the people of the neighbour- 
hood. That little town was so shaken that the 
London papers had to take notice of the revival there. 

Hundreds of miners were being converted each day. 
The girl, who was so young that her mother was 
afraid to tell her age, although she appeared to be 
older, had no great education and no great power of 
oratory, but she was a witness of the power of the 
Holy Ghost in Jesus Christ. 

And the people were converted because Christ was 
honoured. 

A Great London daily sent a representative down 
to see that girl. He said to her, "Where do you 
come from?" 

"From the City of Destruction," she said. 



72 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

"Where are you going ?" she was asked. 

"I am going to Heaven/' she answered. 

"Where is Heaven ?" 

"Heaven is in my heart," she said. 

"What is Heaven ?" 

"Heaven is a conscience void of offence toward 
God and man." She had got the well of living water 
within. 

Have you got it? Do you know it? 

"If any man thirsteth, let him come unto me and 
drink, and he that cometh to me out of him shall 
flow rivers." 

Oh ! men and women, listen ! It is through God you 
see it in this Gipsy boy. I have glorified Christ this 
morning. I have magnified Christ and the Holy Ghost 
this morning. This is not the product of the schools 
or the universities or the professors. It is a little 
Gipsy boy who came to the fountains of Jesus and 
drank, and the world is finding the stream. That is 
all. Surely you can drink like that. 

Oh ! thirsty heart, come and drink ! And then open 
up the flood-gates, draw back the lock-gates, and let 
God's tide come. And you will have f rictionless mo- 
tion. Frictionless motion — that is a great expression. 
And you will have perpetual motion and God will be 
glorified and you will be enriched. 

Come and drink ! Listen ! Some of you are carry- 
ing a tremendous responsibility because God put a 
bigger deposit in you than in me and he expects a 
bigger return. Some of you have got bigger social 
positions than I, and can do more for the social world. 
Some of you are of greater commercial importance 



IF ANY MAN THIRST 



73 



than I, and should stand for the ideals of Christ in 
the business world. Don't forget to make use of the 
opportunities God has given you. Make use of that 
position in society, make use of your education. Make 
use of everything God has given you to the fullest 
extent and for the greatest glory of the Son of God. 

And out of you shall flow a river, that will enrich 
somebody. Make some garden bloom again, some 
waterless desert blossom as the Garden of the Lord. 

Oh! Get a drink this morning. Get a drink of 
this limpid, fresh, refreshing, life-giving stream! 



"I came to Jesus and I drank 

Of that life-giving stream; 
My thirst was quenched, my soul revived, 

And now I live in Him." 



XI 

WHO HATH BELIEVED OUR REPORT? 

Isaiah 53:1. — "Who hath believed our report? And to 
whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?" 

The lasting effect on your heart will determine 
whether you are really and truly born again. I want 
to say a little more about that, but I want to tell you 
where that picture is really seen in the Scriptures. It 
is in the 53rd chapter of the prophecy of Isaiah. 

"Who hath believed our report? And to whom is 
the arm of the Lord revealed ? For he shall grow up 
before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a 
dry ground." 

VA beautiful thing in an unlikely place. A glorious 
flower grown in poor soil, a root out of a dry ground. 

"He hath no form nor comeliness ; and when we shall 
see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him." 

And I want to say that to some of you this morning 

Jesus is not desirable. If He had been, you would 

have sought Him. There is nothing in Him to attract 

you. You know why, don't you? It is because 

your heart is hard and your eyes, your spiritual eyes, 

blind. As the Book says in another place, "You are 

blinded by the god of this world." You don't see 

Jesus, you know you can put a very small thing over 

your eyes and shut out the light of the sun, and you 

don't see any beauty in Jesus or attraction in Jesus. 

74 



WHO HATH BELIEVED OUR REPORT? 75 

He does not interest you. There is no beauty in Him. 
You don't desire Him. 

Listen! The first state of the natural heart where i 
Christ is concerned is not desiring Him, and that is a 
desperate state. You are so dead that you don't realise 
what Jesus is. So dumb you don't hear what Jesus 
says. 

So careless, so indifferent, so occupied with other 
things, the earthly and the perishable, that you don't see 
the eternal. So occupied with man and mankind that 
you don't see the Divine. The spiritual is dead and 
paralysed that you don't see Jesus. You know you 
can stand near a beautiful flower and never behold it. 
You can stand close to a beautiful piece of music and 
never hear it. 

You can stand close to a beautiful painting and 
have no soul for it and no mind to perceive and con- 
ceive the glory and beauty of that canvas. 

A lady, once looking at one of Turner's master- 
pieces, turned to the great artist and said, "Why, I 
really don't see anything in it." And he replied, 
"Don't you wish you could?" And there are some of 
you looking at Jesus that way but He does not interest 
you. You think of the cross, but it does not interest 
you. You think of the life and the death and the 
resurrection of Jesus, but it does not interest you. You 
think of life and death, but they do not interest you. 
You are so taken up with the trinkets of earth, the 
playthings of time, the things you can handle. Listen, 
no desire — no desire for Jesus. Can this be the state 
of your soul? Oh, man, oh, woman immortal, this 
morning! No desire for the Son of God. And that's 



76 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

a description of you. There is no beauty that you 
should desire Him. Now, listen ! You are not going 
to stay there. You are going to get worse or better. 

If you don't get better, if you don't turn around 
and desire Jesus, you are going to despise Jesus. 
That's the next step. Listen! No desire! He is 
despised. And it is written down in God's book 
against you. You have positively witnessed by your 
own language. You did not desire Him, then you des- 
pised Him, and you won't stay there. You will reject 
Him. That's the third step. No desire for Him, des- 
pise Him and reject Him. 

He is a man of sorrows and grief, and we hid, as 
it were, our faces from Him. He is despised and we 
esteemed Him not. Surely He hath borne our griefs. 
Where are you? Where are you? Have you no de- 
sire for Jesus? If you have this morning, follow the 
desire. 

Listen! If you have a desire for better things, a 
purer life, to walk with God, to do your duty as a 
Christian, to round out your life as in the light of 
God, and to have it count as fully for goodness and 
God — that is the gift of the Holy Spirit. No real 
desire for good things springs from the heart that is 
at enmity against God. I say this to impress you 
with the fact that every thought or hope, or desire 
for a better life, is the inbreeding of the Holy Spirit 
into your heart and mine. 

"There is no beauty that we should desire Him. 
He is despised and rejected." Have you got into the 
despised state? Did you say before you came to this 
service to-day, "I don't believe in this revival ; I don't 



WHO HATH BELIEVED OUR REPORT? 7% 

believe in this Gipsy Smith; I don't believe in this 
movement; but I will go and see it; I will just see 
what they are doing down there" ? Is that your atti- 
tude this morning? That's the rejecter's attitude, 
and you had better been born among the pigmies of 
darkest Africa than been born in a Christian land. 
Your Hell will be hotter than the people who never 
knew, and it ought to be. That's equity. For you 
will be judged not as those who never knew, but as 
those who did know and refused to obey. Where are 
you this morning? 

Where are you? Listen to me! Will you put 
Jesus in your life, where He ought to be? If you 
do, lots of things will have to go out. If you do, 
you will stop going to some places you go to now. 
If Jesus is to be enthroned in your heart and life, 
you will stop doing some things that you have been 
doing and if Jesus Christ comes into your life, those 
things will stop. 

Listen! Here is a little text to take home with 
you. "She that liveth in pleasure is dead, while she 
liveth." That's God's word. Don't forget that. And 
when Jesus comes into your life, my sister, my brother, 
you'll want to do what He wants, because you lose 
the desire for the other things. You won't want the 
world. 

A society woman in one of your beautiful cities 
attended every one of my meetings some time ago. 
I saw her sitting there, night after night, and one night 
she sat close to me. When the meeting came to the 
place where the cards of decision were being signed, 
I held a card to her myself and said, "Won't you sign 



78 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

that for Jesus' sake?" And she looked up and her 
eyes filled with tears and she said, "Yes, yes, I will 
sign it for Jesus' sake." She did it, and the next 
morning she called me up on the phone and she said, 
"Can I come and see you?" I said "Yes." She 
came. She said in ten days from then she was to 
have a bridge party at her house. "What am I to 
do about it? Am I to call it off?" I said, "No, it 
is too good an opportunity. Don't you call it off." 
I said, "Let them all come, and give them the best 
meal that you gave at any party in your life, and 
when you have given them your meal, then tell them 
of your conversion. I will pray for you." She said, 
"Good, I will do that." 

She came to see me again before the party came off. 
"When I met her in the room I said, "How are you 
this morning?" She said, "Sky high; they are all 
coming. They don't know what they are coming for, 
but they are all coming." 

That day was Tuesday. I was preaching and I 
was praying for that woman, and those society people 
assembled, and the next morning before I went down 
to breakfast my phone rang, and when she said, "Do 
you know who it is?" I said, "Yes, Sky High." And 
I said, "How are you?" and she answered, "Sky 
higher." She said, "I told those people Jesus had 
saved me and they put their arms around me, and 
expressed the wish that they might possess the same 
courage." 

People know when they meet those who are real. 
They know and they admire the man or woman who 
takes the stand with Jesus Christ. That's the secret 



WHO HATH BELIEVED OUR REPORT? 79 

of the heart of the man and the woman who follows 
Christ. 

You look at that dear Christ, as He hangs there, 
bleeding for you, dying for you, and you'll hear Him 
say, "I suffered this for you. I gave my life for you. 
What hast thou given me ? What hast thou done for 
me?" 

Listen! After all, what are the perishing things 
of earth compared with the things of eternity? "Be- 
gone, vain world, thou hast no charm for me." And 
I tell you this morning that the world with all its 
glitter, with all its pomp and with all its pride is 
empty. It is empty, and if all of it were laid at my feet 
without Jesus, my life would be worthless without Him, 
absolutely worthless, and I don't know where I would 
go to hide myself or lay my tired head or my heart if 
I had not Christ. 

I don't know what I would do if I had not Jesus. 
The world — I am spoiled for the world. I have 
sounded its depths. I have tried to scale its heights, 
and I want to say to you this morning, after travelling 
the world and touching five continents, and looking 
into the faces of more people than any living man, 
Jesus for me! And life would be worthless without 
Him, and I don't know how to exist without Christ. 
Take Him into your life this morning. Take Him 
into your heart this morning. Open the door; let 
Him in. 

A lady friend of mine who Has a" lovely little boy, 
took him to see Holman Hunt's great picture, "The 
Light of the World," and she described the picture to 
that child's mind as well as she could : Jesus standing 



80 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

there with a latch in His hand, knocking at the door. 
She then said, "You know, darling, Jesus is trying 
to get in there, and the people behind it must lift the 
latch, and He cannot get in until the people behind the 
door lift the latch and then open the door. That's 
what he's waiting for. One of these days Jesus will 
knock at your door like that, and when He knocks 
you'll let Him in, won't you ? You will open the door 
and let Him into your heart." And the child an- 
swered : "Mother dear, I have never closed the door 
against Him." 

Oh! If we could all say that. I will never close 
the door against Him. Listen, men and women, aren't 
you ashamed of yourselves this morning to think of 
the times you closed the door in His dear face ? Don't 
you loathe yourselves this morning that you ever 
closed the door in His face? I could weep for you. 
Oh! I do thank God I let Him into my heart when 
I was a boy, and I have never closed the door against 
Him. God help you to let Him in this morning. 



XII 
THERE SHALL YE SEE HIM 

Mark 16:7. — "But go your way, tell His disciples and Peter 
that He goeth before you into Galilee: there shall ye 
see Him, as He said unto you." 

If we could go back to the faith of the cradle, 
wouldn't it make a great difference ? 

If I could fill your eyes with Stardust and just make 
you believe in fairies again, if I could bring you back 
to the simplicity of your cradle hope and faith, 
wouldn't it be heavenly? 

The trouble with us is that we have drifted away 
from the faith in God, from His love, and from His 
presence. You have given it away. And what have 
you in the place of it? You have money. Well, what 
can it do for you ? 

Can it dry a tear? Not a tear. Can it cure you of 
that pain in your heart? Not a pain. Can it change 
your sombre garments? Can it split the slab of the 
cemetery? Can it open the grave? No. It is 
impotent. 

It stands useless before tears, heartache, suffering 
and death. Why, you can't get even new digestive or- 
gans with it, and some of you would give a lot for 
that. You can't get an appetite with it. 

A friend of mine, the daughter of a millionaire in 
my own country, was sick. She had no appetite. The 

81 



82 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

doctors were unable to diagnose her case. She was 
sent to the South of France and from there she wrote 
to a friend of hers who showed me the letter. She 
wrote: "Here am I, in the midst of the songs of 
birds, and in the midst of flowers; the skies are blue, 
the air is full of sunshine. There is everything here 
to make life happy. If I could only find an appetite 
I think I could get better." 

You may starve in the midst of plenty. You may 
be decked, yes, positively decked, with diamonds, and 
you may live in a magnificent building that you call 
a home, you may ride in a luxurious car but your soul 
is a pauper because you have not faith in God. 

Listen! The thing which your soul needs is ac- 
quaintance with God. If you could bring yourself 
back to the cradle, so you would be willing to say : 

"Gentle Jesus, meek and mild, 

Look upon a little child; 

Pity my simplicity, 

Help me, Lord, to come to Thee. 

Fain I would to Thee be brought, 
Dearest God, forbid me not; 
In the Kingdom of Thy grace 
Give a little child a place." 

If I could get you to pray that prayer, you would 
be a man again, you would be a woman again. Your 
soul could soar into the realms of God. Come back 
to your cradle faith. The world can't give it to you. 
The schools can't give it to you. The scholars haven't 
got it. 



THERE SHALL YE SEE HIM 83 

Vain philosophies and the philosophy of men won't 
help you. You have got to come back as Peter came 
to the place of rectifying and pardon. 

I sometimes wonder if Peter would have become the 
apostle he became afterwards if Jesus hadn't said, 
"And Peter." Peter knew the torture of saying, "I 
don't know Him." And as he went out Jesus looked 
at him as if to say, <r Don't you know me, Peter? You 
were present at the opening of the eyes of the blind 
man; you were present with me when I raised your 
wife's mother from the fever. Peter — Peter — don't 
you know me ?" No. He didn't tantalise Peter, when 
Peter's heart was already broken. 

And do you know, Jesus is ever loath to condemn 
those who deny Him. He is. He knows the struggle 
every soul has, the fight that goes on in the arena of 
every man's private life. 

Have you ever thought about Peter and Judas? 
There is not very much difference. One sold Him for 
thirty pieces of silver, the other denied Him. Sup- 
pose Judas had come back with Peter ? I wonder what 
would have happened ? I have faith enough to believe 
that if Judas had come back with Peter, Jesus would 
have forgiven Him and cleansed his heart. And re- 
member, Jesus did wash his feet. If he had come 
back in penitence he would have washed his heart. 

If Judas had only had sense enough to come back. 
I say that because I want every man and every woman 
here to feel, I don't care how big or how black your 
sins, that Jesus will open His arms if you come. 

Jesus said to Simon Peter, ''Simon, lovest thou me?" 
You know the interview. I wish you would let your 



84 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

soul have that kind of a little talk with Jesus this 
morning. 

And to show you how wonderfully Jesus forgives, 
He made Peter the chief spokesman at the first great 
Pentecostal service. 

Jesus wants you, my brother, and you, my sistei. 
He wants to speak through your personality. Will you 
let Him, or will you disappoint Him? He wanted 
Peter. Go and tell Peter. I want Peter. Peter is 
to be a fisher of men. Tell Peter I want him. And I 
tell you He wants you. Will you respond to Him? 

Will you say, "Lord Jesus, here's my life, here's my 
reputation, my position, here's my money, here's my 
social standing, here's my business, here's my all, take 
me as I am. Flood me, drench me with Thy Spirit, 
so that the world may praise God through me." 

There are men and women listening to me this 
morning who could help God save the world if they 
were fully consecrated. 

I looked into the face of a beautiful woman this 
morning and said, "God has given you that face and 
that body and that personality. What have you done 
for him?" He will say to you all: "What hast thou 
done with these gifts for me? I bestowed these things 
upon you that you might help save the world for which 
I died." 

Will you meet a disappointed Christ some day? 
Suppose Peter had said, "No, I won't go to Galilee; 
I won't meet my Lord." You would never have read 
of Peter any more after the Crucifixion. All you 
know about Judas was that he went out and hung 
himself, and Peter, if he had not gone back to Jesus, 



THERE SHALL YE SEE HIM 85 

might have done the same thing. But the world was 
enriched because Peter went to meet his Lord. 

You are making history now just like Peter. You 
are being made to think and feel of the things of 
Christ. What are you going really to do? 

My dear friend, you had better never have felt the 
power of Christ or have heard these things you are 
hearing in these days and then drift back to the old 
way of feeling, to the old doubt, the old bondage. 
May God help you to be willing in this day of His 
power. 

Great things are possible for you, if you will only 
obey the light and lift up the standard. Get down 
before your Lord to-day. And if anything in your 
life wants straightening out, like Peter's, He will 
straighten it out and then say, "Feed my sheep." 

And the things that He would put into your life will 
be of the quality and quantity you can pass on to those 
around you who are perishing. And the word of the 
Lord will go out of you and there will be a Pentecost 
somewhere near you, through you, and you will be 
able to say to the crippled, the lame, and the man in 
need, "In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise 
up and walk." For in His name you may claim the 
same power and work the same miracles which Peter 
did, if you are as obedient as he. 

Meet Jesus in Galilee. Obey Him. Listen to Him. 
Open your heart to Him. Let Him have His way 
with you. Woe be unto you if you don't obey. 

For Jesus said unto the Scribes and Pharisees, "Woe 
unto you, ye generation of vipers, how shall you escape 
the damnation of hell?" 



86 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

The tender Christ said that. 

You have got a great chance. God help you to use 
it. Jesus is in your city. He is speaking to you. And 
he is speaking to the city. Bow before Him and say, 
"Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth." And when 
He speaks, answer again, "Be it according to Thy 
word." 

Again I say, Come back to the simplicity of child- 
hood and you will find your mother's God, your 
mother's Christ and your mother's joy. 

You know it isn't a new Bible you want. It is no 
new church you want. I have been receiving letters 
from people. They say they want a new church, a 
new Bible, a new programme. Well, listen! Who is 
to write the new Bible — the people who criticise it ? I 
say yes — if they die and rise again in three days. 
You go and die on a cross and rise in three days and 
walk about and I will let you write the new Bible. 

And you say a new Church. Who is to give us the 
new Church? If you who criticise it do, you will 
have a theatre on one side and a dance hall and a 
jazz band playing in the basement. Oh, no; I object. 
I believe it must be founded by Christ. 

Do you need a new gospel ? No. That is not neces- 
sary. I will tell you what is necessary. Eyes to see 
and hearts to believe and then your mother's Bible and 
Church will be good enough for you. 

Come back to the cradle faith. Again I say, if I. 
could fill your eyes with Stardust we would have 
Heaven here below. Lord, bring us back to our simple 
childhood and mother's faith. Give us back our faith 
in God, our faith in Christ and the Holy Ghost, our 



THERE SHALL YE SEE HIM 87 

faith in the Holy Bible and in the Holy Church, the 
Bride of the Lamb. 

I have heard it sung sometimes, "All I want is a 
little more faith in Jesus." Don't you feel that is 
true? 

I wonder if there is any one here that doesn't pray 
for more faith. I will tell you how to get it. Use 
what you have got. 

If a man wants a stronger muscle he has to use 
his arm. If he wants to be athletic he must take 
plenty of exercise. If he wants to ride a bicycle, he 
must go forward, for if he stands still, he will tumble. 
There is no standing still on a bicycle. And listen, 
if a man wants faith in God, he must use it. And 
every man, woman, boy or girl has got the capacity 
for believing or Jesus would never have said, "Have 
faith in God." 

You have faith in the seat you are sitting in. You 
saw those seats and you had faith that they would 
bear you up, and you sat. 

And if you will just believe in God like that, He 
will bear you up too. Just step out on the promise. 
He holds the world in His hands, and He will hold 
you, and if you feel yourself a poor sinner this morn- 
ing, he is strong enough to keep you from falling. 

I was preaching in the Rhonda Valley during the 
revival in Wales, when I was the guest of a local 
magistrate. I sat at my table reading my mail; my 
table was near a window which looked out over the 
valley, the little valley nestling below. I could see 
through the falling snow the outline of one of those 
beautiful Welsh mountains beyond the valley. 



8B EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

I was reading a letter from a man who had heard 
me preach three months before in another city, and had 
been convicted of his life of sin, and who now wrote: 

"Every time I look at my family, my double life 
haunts me like a ghost. I have abandoned my sinful 
living, but I have found no rest. I am writing to 
ask you if you think God will have mercy on a poor 
wretch like me." 

I laid the letter down to think and while thinking I 
watched the falling snow. As I did so, I seemed to see 
a snowflake pause in mid-air and thought I heard it 
say to the mountain in front of me, "Oh, mighty 
mountain, I am only a little snowflake and I want a 
resting place; if I fall, can you bear me?" Then I 
thought I heard the old mountain rumble out of the 
eternities and say, "Little snowflake, I have my roots 
in eternity and underneath me are the everlasting arms. 
If you want a resting place, fall on me, and see if I 
can bear a snowflake." 

I then penned my little parable on paper and sent it 
to my friend in the distant city. The next day I re- 
ceived a telegram from him in which he said, "Thank 
God, I am on the mountain and it bears." 

Can a mountain bear a snowflake, can an ocean 
bear a bubble? Don't ask can God save you. Have 
sense to let Him. 

Just step out on His omnipotence. And you will 
find the thrill of a new heart, a new life in Christ 
Jesus. God grant it may be so just now. Oh, have 
faith in God. Amen! 



XIII 

THE UNSEARCHABLE RICHES OF CHRIST 

Ephesians 3 : 8. — "Unto me, who am less than the least of all 
saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among 
the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ." 

Now this is a big subject, and instead of fifteen 
minutes I should like to have fifteen hours, because you 
have a continent to explore. I can only bring you a 
leaf from the forest, just to let you see something of 
the foliage of the wonderful and the glorious posses- 
sions which God has for those who are interested and 
believe and love Him. I can only bring you a tiny 
flower, just one from the garden to show the tropical 
splendours of the Lord's garden, just a tiny feather 
from the wing of a little bird, to let you see some- 
thing of the plumage of the feathered tribe of this 
wonderful, unexplored, inexhaustible, boundless inheri- 
tance to which you and I are called in Jesus Christ. 
"The unsearchable riches of Christ." 

To be practical, what does it mean for you and 
for me? If you will read the 14th verse you will 
see what Paul says : "For this cause I bow my knees 
unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the 
whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he 
would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, 
to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the 



inner man." 



89 



90 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

I pray that you may be given, according to the riches 
of grace, to be strong in the Lord. This means that 
you may be strong, round, full-orbed, robust, glorious, 
beautiful, strengthened by His spirit in the inner man, 
as beautiful as a bunch of roses on a June morning, 
as glorious and as sweet as a field of clover on a May 
day, as fresh and invigorating and life-giving, as attrac- 
tive as a spring morning fresh as it bursts from eter- 
nity, as full of music as the woods are full of song. 
"Strengthened with all might by his Spirit in the inner 
man." 

That is Paul's prayer : that God may give you and 
me from the riches of His glory the unsearchable riches 
of Jesus Christ. 

Has that prayer been answered for you? Are you 
strong in the Lord and in the power of His might? 
Are you anchored steady, firmly fixed in the Lord, and 
in the power of His might ? Are you firmly fixed on 
the Rock of Ages ? Is your face toward the hill-tops ? 
Are you as strong as a mountain, and as fresh as the 
morning, strong in the Lord, in the inner man ? This 
is one of the riches of His grace. 

Once the fathomless wealth of these riches gets into 
your soul, do you suppose you can hide it? You will 
be like the man who was converted in one of my 
meetings some time ago, at a noon service. He was so 
full of his new joy that he went home after the meet- 
ing instead of going to his place of business. As he 
went from the meeting, he told me that he was glori- 
ously saved and he was going home to his family. I 
said, "You will tell them about it, when you get home?" 
He replied, "I shall not say anything about it." "You 



THE UNSEARCHABLE RICHES OF CHRIST 91 

won't," I said. "No," he replied. "Do you know you 
are converted?" I asked. "Yes. I am confident," he 
replied. "Very well," I said, "go home and keep quiet 
if you can." What do you think he did when he got 
home? He did what he had never done before in all 
his married life; he went into the cellar and chopped 
up all the wood he could find, to the surprise of his 
wife and daughter, then he filled all the scuttles with 
coal, and when he found nothing else to do he shouted 
to his wife, "Mary, do you want any potatoes from 
the barn?" Mary said, "John, what is the matter?" 
And he said, "I am converted." 

The riches of His grace will come out. You cannot 
hide the sun at noon-day. 

Here is another thing. If the riches of His grace 
are to dwell in you richly, you must be rooted and 
grounded in the love of Christ. If your roots are in 
Christ, the fruit will be there. You know you always 
know a rose-tree, if it is alive, because it bears roses. 
Men do not gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles, 
and if you are rooted and grounded in the love of 
Christ, there will be the fruits of grace coming out of 
your life, out of your mouth, out of your hands, out 
of your feet, out of your whole deportment. You 
will have the fruits of the Spirit, which are love, joy, 
peace, patience, long-suffering, forgiveness. 

When I was a gipsy boy, and my father pitched his 
tent in the summer-time, I would not be there many 
minutes before I had a garden. I would get a stake 
out of the hedge and I would dig up a little space, and 
I would gather primrose roots and violets, and such 
things, and I planted them all nicely, but it didn't 



92 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

matter how much water I gave them, as soon as the 
sun got up and got on the top of them, they would 
all wilt and die. And why? They were just stuck 
in and had no rootage. And lots of you are just stuck 
in the Church like that. You have no roots. But 
where you are rooted and grounded in the love of 
Christ there is fruit and beauty. There will be no 
doubt about your fruit-bearing if your roots have 
got hold of the soil which is provided by the riches of 
His grace. In the kingdom of His grace, the land is 
so wealthy that the fruits are plentiful because the 
supplies of the wisdom and the love and the fulness 
of God are so abundant. 

Do you think that your life would be what it is? 
Oh, I know you're a member of the Church. A man 
said to me this morning in my room, "I shook hands 
with you last night; the people who are church mem- 
bers do just what I do, and there is no difference in 
them, but if I go into the Church I can't do that. I 
can't do what they, do. My conscience won't let me." 
I said, "What are you going to do now?" He said, 
"I am going to get into the Church." 

I once heard Sam Jones say this: "You folks who 
are outside of the Church, when you get inside, do 
what you think you would do when you are outside, 
when you get in." There is a bit of sanctified sense 
there; you get rooted and grounded in the love of 
Christ. 

I want to tell you that the world is watching you, 
that men outside the Church have been looking at you 
Christians and have been kept outside because of your 
inconsistency and want of fruit, and the people who 



THE UNSEARCHABLE RICHES OF CHRIST 93 

are outside have been kept outside because you don't 
live as you should. Why don't you alter your 
methods ? 

One of the fruits of the Spirit and one of the won- 
ders of grace and one of the unexplored regions for 
most of us, is that God wants us to have our inner 
roots so fixed in Himself that we shall draw from 
Him, and the world may know we belong to Him, 
Listen to these words : "Herein is My Father glori- 
fied, that ye bear much fruit." You prove your dis- 
cipleship by the fruits you bear and so do I. But to 
bear fruit we must be rooted and grounded in the love 
of Christ. 

Here is another thing that is practical for you and 
me within the unsearchable riches of Christ, that you 
may be able to grasp with all saints what is the breadth 
and depth and length and height. And some of us, you 
know, are afraid; we are afraid of the depths, we are 
afraid to get out too deep into deep waters. We are 
afraid of the deep waters, we are timid about that. 
We don't want overmuch religion, else So-and-so or 
Mrs. So-and-so will think we are extreme. We want 
just enough to be respectable, and we don't want to 
be considered peculiar or extreme. 

But listen. It is the extreme people that are useful, 
who stand out as the people of God. It is the luke- 
warm that are of no use, they are a hindrance. And 
Jesus said — you read it — He would that we were 
hot or cold, not luke-warm. The people who are try- 
ing to avoid extremes are the people who are the 
curse to the Kingdom of God. "I would thou wert 
cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and 



94 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth." 
We ought to go into the deep places. You know 
Ezekiel in his visions of the waters, when he saw the 
water flowing from underneath the throne in his 
vision, stepped in up to his ankles, then up to his 
knees, then he got out further, and it came up to his 
loins, then he got out further still, and it was deep 
enough to swim in. It was a river of God. He got 
to the deep places. Some of you are up to your knees 
in the Church, you go to Church once on Sunday, and 
you have had enough then, and you have graced the 
sanctuary with your presence and patronized the 
preacher, and made him feel he ought to consider him- 
self complimented that you were there. Poor deluded 
thing — poor half-starved thing, you are only up to 
your ankles. You want to get out a little bit further 
and understand what our Salvation Army friends call 
Knee Drill. Thank the Lord I saw my congregation 
last night on its knees and there was no trouble to get 
them there. Last night the whole congregation knelt 
down before God and wanted to do it. 

Some of you are not only stiff-necked, but stiff- 
kneed. Some of you haven't knelt for years. I tell 
you what I have noticed in Church when I have gone 
to worship sometimes as one of the congregation, to 
pick up a crumb or two for myself ; the people, when 
the pastor said, "Let us pray," remained bolt upright. 
We are losing reverence for God. 

Some are up to the loins. That means the strength 
of their manhood is Christ's. Then there are those 
who are out where they can swim in it. They are all 
in. Why don't you get in like that ? There are depths 



THE UNSEARCHABLE RICHES OF CHRIST 95 

for you church people who are in the shallows. Go out 
that you may know the heights and the depths. 

I wonder if any of you have read of Mrs. Margaret 
Bottome, who was the founder of the King's Daugh- 
ters in America. She was the widow of a godly 
Methodist preacher. She was a godly woman, a 
mother in Israel. Her face was a benediction and to 
hear her pray was to be lifted a little nearer to God. 
I met her the last time at Ocean Grove during the 
camp meeting and she came to me and said, "I have 
a story to tell you. I know you can use it. I was 
walking early this morning on the board walk and a 
little boy out there in a boat who knew me shouted 
out, 'Mrs. Bottome, won't you get into my boat and 
have a row?' And I looked back and said, 'Yes, I 
believe I will.' So I went to the steps and waited 
for him, and I got on the bottom step just above the 
water — it was a calm, beautiful morning — and he came 
along, and when he came close up and the boat was 
steady, I stood firmly on one foot and touched the 
edge of the boat with the other foot (and Mrs. Bot- 
tome was a full-sized woman), I just touched the edge 
of the boat and of course the boat went out and left 
me. So the little fellow came back again and steadied 
his boat again and then I changed my foot and tried 
the other one, and of course the boat went out again 
and left me, and the little fellow scratched his head 
and said, 'Why don't you get in all of you?' " That 
is it, get in all of you. You know you have one foot 
in the world and you are trying to keep one in the 
church and they don't go very well together. Get all 
in. Get into the depths. 



§6 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

The riches of His grace are able, my brother, to 
do all this and more for you. We need not look 
poverty-stricken and walk about like old tramps, we 
can look like the children of a King. We can wear 
the garments of praise and the spirit of happiness and 
we may be clothed like the morning and our hearts, 
full of praise to God. 

God has been doing these things for some of us. 
We have been entering into a new experience. We 
have been climbing up on higher ground. We have 
been getting out of the darkness into the light. Our 
sighs have been changed to songs. 



XIV 
BLESSED ARE THE PURE IN HEART 

Matthew 5 : 8. — "Blessed are the pure in heart : for they 
shall see God." 

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God, 
and the pure heart is the goal of Calvary. The 
pure heart is the climax of the work of Jesus Christ 
for you and me. He can make your heart and mind 
pure. Now, please get that into your minds and get 
it into your heart that that's what He wants to do, 
and anything short of that is dishonouring Him. 

"A heart in every thought renewed, 

And full of love divine; 
Perfect, and right, and pure, and good, 

A copy, Lord, of thine." 

"Thy nature, gracious Lord, impart, 

Come quickly from above, 
Write thy new name upon my heart, 

Thy new, best name of Love." 

The pure heart is what the Holy Spirit was given 
to produce in you and me. Listen ! I will take away 
the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you 
a heart of flesh, and what some of you have this morn- 
ing is a stony heart. 

I said to a man in one of my services not long ago, 

97 



98 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

"My brother, when will you give your heart to God?" 
He said, "Gipsy Smith, I haven't got a heart. Mine 
is only a gizzard," and, mind you, he wasn't trifling. 
He was sincere. He got a vision of his heart, his own 
heart, and he was convinced how he felt it to be. It 
is a gizzard, and you know what a gizzard is ; it is a 
stony place. I will take away the stony heart out of 
your flesh. Your heart is stony, cold, lifeless, selfish, 
corrupt. The reason you are vile outside is because 
you are vile inside, and God wants to take your vile- 
ness out by giving you a clean heart, a pure heart. 

"Blessed are the pure in heart." Then God can 
make your heart good and if your heart is good, you 
will be good outside. 

I have heard people talk about some when they do 
wrong, go wrong, break hearts, break up homes, wreck 
lives. I have heard them say, "You know, he is good 
at heart." Haven't you heard that ? Why, it is a lie. 
They do these things because they are bad at heart. 
God wants to put your heart right and if you start, 
listen to me, if you start anywhere else, you will start 
at the wrong place. Get your heart right, and God 
wants to put your heart right, and He will and can 
make it good. Oh, but somebody says, "I was born 
with a devil in me." Well, you can be born again 
and this time with the devil out. So that is no ex- 
cuse. Jesus undertakes your case. I was talking to 
somebody the other day, and he said, "I want to be 
good. But you don't know how bad I am." 

I said, "I don't care how bad you are. I know my 
Master, and I know He can make you good. Haven't 
you known Him to make bad people good?" "Yes," 



BLESSED ARE THE PURE IN HEART 99 

he replied, "I knew one man He made good." I said, 
"What did He make him good out of ?" And he said, 
"Nothing." "Well," I said, "He can make you good 
out of what is left. Give Him a chance. All power is 
given unto Him in heaven and on earth; and He can 
make you good." 

You see the difference between you and an animal 
is that you are a moral agent, and God has an asset 
in you. He created you in His own image. 

When I was in France with the boys, one after- 
noon, I was taking a little walk just back of the lines. 
I had sought freedom from that village just to be 
quiet for a few hours, to get away from the horror, 
from the murder and the blood, and the suffering, 
and the tears, and the heartaches, and the sights, that 
tore my heart to shreds. I was walking in one of 
those lovely woods, those French woods, and in the 
centre of that wood, I came across a mudhole, just a 
little pool. If the wind had been still I could have 
pitched a cracker across it, it was so small in circum- 
ference. The water in it was as black as ink. 

All around its sides it was fringed with bracken and 
autumn tints and the sun had cast that little pool, even 
though black, into a black diamond and the surface 
of that mudhole was covered with continents of 
purity, handfuls of glorious gems, and what do you 
think they were? They were water lilies and their 
roots were in the mud. And if God can bring lilies 
out of an inkpot whose roots are in black mud, if He 
can make little handfuls of purity enough to make 
angels thrill to the tips of their wings, He can make 
your heart pure. 



100 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

Don't you doubt His power. Don't you doubt His 
ability. God is almighty. 

Somebody was riding through the streets of Lon- 
don with Ruskin, on one occasion — that great artist — 
that great classic writer — that apostle of the truth long 
before his time — and looking out of the carriage (it 
was raining), his companion said, "What disgusting 
stuff this London mud is," and Ruskin replied, "Wait; 
there are in this disgusting mud, London mud, there 
are the soot, the sand, the lime, out of which God 
makes sapphires, opals, and diamonds." And if God 
can make sapphires, opals and diamonds out of Lon- 
don mud, He can make saints out of the men and 
women in front of me this morning. He can make 
within you a pure heart. 

Again I repeat Wesley, the same words, 

"A heart in every thought renewed, 

And full of love divine; 
Perfect, and right, and pure, and good, 

A copy, Lord, of Thine." 

But if you want to be like Him, you must keep close 
to Him. I know this much about my Lord, if you live 
with Him, you will get like Him, only keep close up 
to Him. The danger with us all is, we follow a long 
way off from Him. 

Why, I took an old root, one day, an old root out 
of a lane under the hedge, from the grassy, ivy cov- 
ered bank, close to the spot where my beloved mother 
died. I wanted something in my garden from that 
sacred spot that was consecrated by her death. So I 



BLESSED ARE THE PURE IN HEART 101 

took some ivy and planted it and it is growing around 
some of the old stumps in the garden, and I go and look 
at it till I am a gipsy boy again, I am in the lane 
where I lost my mother. 

And I also took out of that bank an old root; it was 
only a root. You would not have known what it was ; 
a gardener would, a horticulturist would have known, 
but the average person, or persons who didn't know 
gardening would have known nothing about that root. 
I took it home, wrapped up carefully in a piece of 
paper. When I got home I took it out of the paper, 
and I said to my wife, "Annie, come here/' and I 
showed it to her. And she said, "Look at your fin- 
gers — look at your dirty fingers. What have you got 
there — that old dirty root?" And I said, "Wait a 
minute, I am going to plant this. I won't tell you 
what it is, but I want you to watch it when I am 
absent — watch it for my sake." I put it underneath 
a pear tree, on a little bit of a bank, which I knew 
would be sheltered from the northeast wind, but it 
would catch the first kisses of the spring sunshine. 
And one day I received a letter from home, in April, 
and my wife said, "Rodney, you know where you 
planted that dirty old root, there's the most lovely 
bunch of primroses you ever saw." 

Listen! the primroses were in the root all along; 
they only wanted the sunshine and the atmosphere. 
And you don't know what is in you. It only needs 
God to bring it out, and make it possible for the beau- 
tiful and noble and true. God can make you pure in 
heart. It is all there. 

Give God a chance with you. The capacity is there. 



102 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

The wildness has got you now. The wickedness has 
got you now. The Devil is in you now, the lying has 
got you now, the cheating has got you now, the un- 
clean has hold of you now. Let God come and cast the 
Devil out, and then just as there was a calm after the 
storm, you will know the peace that comes, and just 
as that man was clothed and in his right mind, and 
stood at the feet of Jesus and told his friends and 
neighbours what great things the Lord had done for 
him, just that kind of a change will come over you 
when grace has had her perfect work, and made you 
right and pure, and good, a copy — a copy of His great 
heart. 

Don't forget that God can do it for you. All things 
are possible to Him. 

I was staying with a London family some time ago. 
You know I pity folks who are born surrounded by 
bricks and mortar. You know nothing. I positively 
pity you. You people who just see bricks and mortar, 
and fine homes, and fine chairs to sit in, and money to 
spend, and nothing but jazz and nonsense, you don't 
know you were born. Come out with me, and live in 
God's woods and I will teach you a few things. Come 
out where the birds sing, where the stars shine, where 
God's wind blows through the brains and the soul, 
where the eternities whisper the secrets of the skies to 
you and you will learn things. 

Why, a rose — I never talk to a rose, hanging in the 
garden, early in the morning, without seeing a tear 
in its eye, in the form of a dewdrop. It is always 
sympathetic. God's flowers — well, they are His 
thoughts in colours and perfumes. Somebody said to 



BLESSED ARE THE PURE IN HEART 103 

me the other day, "What do you call a butterfly ?" I 
replied, "God's flowers on the wing." 

I was in this home of culture — I took something out 
of my pocket and I said to the young people, 
"What is that?" And one of them, about fifteen, said, 
"Why, that is an onion." I replied, "No, it is not an 
onion, it is a bulb." If I were to show some of you 
a bulb like that, you would think it was an onion. 
That's about all you know of nature. "It is a bulb," I 
said, and they asked, "A bulb, what is that?" I said, 
"Have you a flower pot?" "Yes." "Get me a flower 
pot." "Have you any soil ?" They said, "We have some 
in the back yard," and I said, "Have the pot filled with 
soil and I will plant that for you." And I kept the 
crown just a tiny bit above the soil and I dampened it. 
I said, "Keep that in the dark, don't drown it, just 
keep it damp and in the dark, until you see about half 
an inch of green above the surface and then bring it 
to the light and see what will happen." And in time 
I had a letter saying, "Oh, Gipsy Smith, we have the 
most lovely white hyacinth you ever saw." Why, that 
hyacinth was in that bulb all the while; it only waited 
for the power of the water and the soil. And the 
power of God co-operating with your soul will make it 
pure and beautiful. 

I wonder what you will be when grace has done her 
perfect work in you — one thing I know, your heart will 
be pure and you will see God. You will be a good 
man, or a good woman, a beautiful soul, illumined, 
cleansed, purified, ennobled, by the incoming of the 
son of God. 

"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see 



104 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

God." Listen to me ! The pure in heart see God every- 
where. They see Him in the face of a little child, 
they see Him in the daisy, they see Him in the dewdrop, 
they see Him in the stars, they see Him in the sunbeam, 
in the wind that caresses their brow, they see Him in 
the morning light, in the evening zephyr breeze, yes, 
they see Him everywhere. 

The pure in heart are always looking for Him, don't 
you see ? They are looking for Him. Have you seen 
God?* Listen! You see Him most in the face of 
Jesus. And whosoever looketh and believeth in Him, 
though he were dead, yet shall he live. 

There is life for a look at the Crucified One, 
There is life at this moment for thee. 

Then look, sinner, look unto Him, and be saved, 
Unto Him who was nailed to the tree. 

If you feel this morning your heart is in need of 
cleansing, bring it to your Lord. 

I can see an old Scotchman now, seventy-five years 
old, walking down the aisle in the granite city in the 
heart of Scotland, Aberdeen. And the whole length of 
the aisle, as he walked, this tall, rugged, handsome, 
old man, was saying in his broad, Scotch brogue, this 
prayer, "Give me the heart of a little child. Give me 
the heart of a little child." "Except ye be converted, 
and become as little children, ye shall not enter into 
the Kingdom of heaven." 

This message is for you this morning. The new 
life demands a new heart and if you will come to God 
now, this moment, here and now, before you leave this 
building, He will take the stonv heart out of your 



BLESSED ARE THE PURE IN HEART 105 

flesh and He will give you the heart of a little child. 
"A new heart will I give you and I will put my Spirit 
within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and 
ye shall keep judgments, and do them." 



XV 
YE SHALL RECEIVE POWER 

Acts 1 : 8. — "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy 
Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses 
unto me." 

I wonder how much personal work you have done 
for Jesus Christ? I pause that you may put the ques- 
tion intelligently to your own heart. How many peo- 
ple have you tried honestly, definitely tried to bring to 
the Lord Jesus? 

Because you know the world is not going to be saved 
by big preachers. It is going to be saved by personal 
testimony, by the power of the grace of Christ in the 
individual heart. 

Jesus said : "Ye shall be witnesses unto me." And 
what God wants you to do is to be a witness bearer. 
If you really love Him, you won't let any one do or 
say anything against Him in your presence without a 
gentle, tender rebuke. And if you will keep it up, 
they will feel the smart of the insult they offer Jesus 
Christ. 

How many people have you written a letter to since 
this campaign began? How many people have you 
gone to see? How many people have you prayed 
with? 

I have been a personal worker all my life. I be- 
lieve in the public declaration of religion, but I am a 
profound believer in personal work. Personal work 

106 



YE SHALL RECEIVE POWER 107 

results in hand-picked fruit and it fetches more in the 
market. 

It is easier to preach a sermon to 500 or 1,000 or 
5,000 than to get down and talk to one person about 
spiritual things. That is where your test comes in. 
That is where your real spiritual life comes out. 

You know Peter was the great preacher of Pente- 
cost. Peter and John had been through Pentecost in 
the morning and they were going to prayer meeting in 
the evening. They saw a beggar at the gate of the 
Temple. They had preached to the multitude out of 
which 3,000 were converted. The men who are will- 
ing to sit down and help one soul, the women who are 
willing to help one soul are the ones that God can 
trust with the multitude. 

Peter and John were on their way to the Temple 
when they saw the beggar. They said, "Look on us, 
look on us." And the beggar looked on them and began 
to expect something. And the world is looking to 
you — it expects something from you. They see you 
going to church and coming from church, but do 
you ever stop and speak to them? 

Many people are standing outside the Temple who 
will never get inside unless some one helps them. That 
beggar would never have got into the Temple if it 
had not been for Peter and John — if they hadn't 
stopped to help him. 

I say to Christians, Don't miss the personal effort. 
Speak to that boy; speak to that girl; speak to that 
man ; speak to that woman. Concentrate on one soul. 
If you save one soul, you have done something to 
deck the brow of Emmanuel. 



108 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

When you have tested the luxury of saving one 
soul for Jesus Christ, you will never rest until you 
have saved another one, because there is nothing in 
the world like it. 

What do you know about personal work? The 
Lord is going to save the world through individual 
testimony. God expects me to serve the world just 
where I can reach it. He expects me to reach just as 
much as I can cover, and to evangelize that portion 
of the world with which I can come in contact. 

Personal work — and I want to say to you that your 
work doesn't stop with the preaching of the gospel. 
What would you think of a doctor if he stood up 
and gave a lecture on health and then left all his 
patients. I know such a plan wouldn't do for me. I 
need somebody to come and get a hold of me and to 
take up my own case. And men and women, who are 
longing for the gospel, will respond to the personal 
touch. He is going to save the world by the testi- 
mony of men and women who have been brought from 
darkness to light. 

I was travelling to a certain valley in Wales, during 
the Welsh revival and two preachers accompanied me 
part of the journey. And when we parted, one of 
them said, "The Lord go with you, Brother Smith." 
And I replied, "If He doesn't, I will speak well of 
Him behind His back." 

I remember the morning I was converted. My 
heart was bursting to tell what Jesus had done for me. 
It is no use to try to keep it in when you have found 
Christ. Tell the sun to stop shining; tell the mighty 
rivers to stop flowing ; tell the wind to stop blowing ; 



YE SHALL RECEIVE POWER 109 

tell the birds to stop singing; tell the angels in high 
heaven to stop the shouting of Hallelujah. It is no 
good to tell Christians to be quiet. Well, they can't, 
that is all, and if you are quiet, it is because you are 
not a Christian. If you have anything to talk about 
it will come out. 

I knelt the night before in that little church alone, 
and nobody came to me, and nobody wanted me, and 
I heard somebody say, "That is only a gipsy boy, no 
use to be concerned about him." But I cried out, 
"Lord Jesus, nobody wants me, but I am hungry for 
Thee." And somehow or other, my boy's heart was 
strangely warmed and I went home to my father and 
said to him, "I am converted." And the next morn- 
ing I went out with my wares in my basket and the 
very first customer I had I began to preach to her, I 
couldn't keep it in. I had got Jesus and I must tell of 
Him. 

Listen! If God is in you, and you know, it will 
come out. The sun shines. The birds sing, and the 
joy of the Lord just bubbles over and flows out. And 
you needn't worry about people who are properly con- 
verted. They will preach for Christ. If they didn't 
speak at all their lives would tell the story. They 
just shun evil and place their trust in Christ. He 
having the light, just shines out. 

It isn't big preaching that is going to save the world. 
It is personal work for Christ and a witness to His 
glory, of salvation full and free. 

I went up into Scotland — and you know some of 
the greatest preachers are Scotchmen. One of these 
ministers had a man in his congregation who was not 



110 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

a Christian. He was a brainy man, a lawyer. And 
the minister longed for that man to come into the 
Church. So he organised a series of sermons to con- 
vert that lawyer. He preached on them for an entire 
winter, and when the services were all over, the man 
came to him and said, "Doctor, I want to join the 
Church. ,, 

"Thank the Lord," said the minister, "which sermon 
did it?" 

"None of them at all; the sermons never interested 
me. 

"What in the world ever influenced you to come 
into the Church, then ?" the minister asked. 

"You know that widow in your Church — the one 
who has to walk with sticks?" 

"Yes," replied the minister. 

"Well, she was going out of the church one morn- 
ing and one of her sticks fell from her hand and I 
caught her just in time to save her from falling. And 
when I had held her up and given her her sticks again 
she said, 'Thank you, sir. I hope you love my Jesus/ 
Your sermons didn't do it, but that dear old widow's 
kind words did it." 

It is your personal testimony that will do it. Are 
you so filled with the Spirit you must tell somebody 
about Jesus ? The consciousness that you have helped 
a soul to Christ will bring you more joy than anything 
else in the world. It will bring you more joy than 
all the decorations and honours that the world can put 
upon you. 

I have had lots of honours in my life. My King 
honoured me and sent for me to come to Buckingham 



YE SHALL RECEIVE POWER 111 

Palace and decorated me. And I don't think of it 
once in a year unless I need the incident to illustrate 
my text. But I will tell you what gives me more 
joy than all such decorations. The joy I am talking 
about will live when the sun and the moon and the stars 
go out like sparks from the blacksmith's anvil. 

I was sitting in a railroad carriage one night in 
England. I was conducting a revival in a little town 
about twenty miles west of Plymouth and I was go- 
ing up to Plymouth for a little holiday. I was early 
in the train and sank into a seat behind my newspaper. 
The train was filled with country folk returning from 
the market. A dear old granny sat in front of me 
and as soon as the train started the topic of discussion 
became Gipsy Smith. 

The revival I was conducting was arousing quite a 
bit of discussion and it was only natural for these 
folks to talk about it. I was glad I was behind my 
paper. I heard some very helpful things about my- 
self. And sometimes it would help all of us if we could 
see ourselves as others see us. 

The old granny said : "You can say what you please 
about Gipsy Smith, I pray for him twice every day, 
and pray the Lord for the success of his meetings. 
I will tell you why. You all know our Jack. When 
his father died, he took his share of the estate and went 
to South Africa, and lived a fast and loose life and 
went literally to the Devil. He broke his mother's 
heart and turned my own hair a little greyer. 

"When the news came one day that Gipsy Smith 
was going to South Africa, I prayed God to help him 
to find Jack. 



112 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

"One day, long after that, Jack came home. And 
he knelt at his mother's knee and said, 'Mother, I am 
converted. I heard Gipsy Smith and he told me to 
come home and put flowers in my mother's hands 
while she could enjoy them and not upon her coffin/ 
Our Jack is now a preacher and a Sunday School 
teacher and everybody loves him, and whatever any 
one says about Gipsy Smith, I would like to write on 
his coffin with my own fingers, 'A friend of sinners.' " 

I would rather go to heaven with that character than 
be a millionaire or a multi-millionaire. 

There are some folks in your city to-day without God 
and without hope in the world. Go and talk to them. 
Go and love them to Jesus Christ. And some day 
He will say to you, "Inasmuch as ye did it to one of 
the least of these, my brethren, ye did it to me." 



XVI 

HE PLEASED GOD 

Hebrews 11:5. — "By faith Enoch was translated that he 
should not see death; and he was not found, because 
God translated him: for before his translation he had 
this testimony, that he pleased God." 

Please God and walk with Him. 

In England there was a little girl who had heard 
her elders talk about Enoch being translated and al- 
though it wasn't all clear to the little child, she per- 
ceived the meaning plainly enough. 

She said, "Mamma, he walked so far with Him 
that day that he forgot to come back and I expect 
God said to Enoch, You have come so far, just stay 
here. You have been there in the world long enough 
now; you must stay with me." 

Had you known Enoch, you would have known 
God. I say that reverently. For to have walked with 
God, as Enoch walked with Him, is to interpret God 
to those about you. That is what spiritual religion 
means. So to take God into my life is to say, "Be- 
hold your God !" 

Whether I speak or not, my life, if God gets His 

way with me, will reflect my Master, and yours will 

do that also. And if my life doesn't show Christ, it 

is wrong; and if your life doesn't do that, it is wrong. 

It breaks down somewhere. 

And why have you filled this building every day 

113 



114 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

for three weeks ? Why ? Why are you here this morn- 
ing? What has brought you? What has caused you 
to come through the rain, the inclement weather? 
What has aroused you? What has moved your city? 
What has arrested the attention of rich and poor alike? 

What has made the topic of conversation throughout 
the city, the Revival? Is it Gipsy Smith? If you 
think that, you don't know anything about it. If 
Gipsy Smith stood on this platform and talked about 
any other subject in this world for six days, you 
couldn't fill this building. I might talk of things past, 
of things present, of things to come, and you might 
fill it once, but you couldn't fill it twice with any other 
subject than the Son of God. It is the gospel of the 
Son of God that has got hold of your heart. And 
somehow or other, you have a notion you have dis- 
cerned a portion of His spirit in this poor body, and 
it is that which has brought you here, and nothing 
else in the world. Christ in me means hope for some 
one else. 

It is the interpretation of God in human lives that 
is going to save the world, and you and I have got to 
learn how to interpret Him. 

Abraham walked after God. And then we are told 
he walked before God. That is to say he followed his 
Lord and then walked so that the Lord watched him 
and could see his every movement. But Enoch walked 
with Him; walked side by side. 

I wonder if you have walked after Him. I wonder 
if you have walked before Him. I wonder if you 
are walking with Him? I wonder if you have gone 
out of these services, during these past days, by His 



HE PLEASED GOD 115 

side, walking with a lighter step, with more joy in 
your soul, and with light in your eyes which never had 
been there before. I wonder if you have said, "I have 
seen the Lord." For that makes all the difference. 
When God comes into your life, my brother, my sis- 
ter, Heaven won't seem far away. It will seem very 
close. 

I tell you that from glad experience. Do you know 
anything about walking with God? Because if you 
do, your wife knows it. The first place it will be 
seen will be in your home. 

A woman came to me not long ago and said, 
"Brother Smith, the Lord has revealed to me that I 
have to preach the gospel. I am a married woman 
and have twelve children." I took her hand and told 
her she ought to be the happiest woman in the world. 
She asked, "Why." I replied, "He told you that you 
have to preach the gospel and he has provided you 
with a congregation." 

That is your place, Mother. Your place is in the 
home where your children are. That is your place, 
my brother, where your children are. Because if you 
can't preach Christ at home, on your doorstep, you 
can't preach Him anywhere else, with my permission. 
Right on your own hearth, that is the place, and I tell 
you, if you love Christ, you will understand what one 
of your own song-writers so beautifully expressed, 
when he wrote : 

"And He walks with me, and He talks with me, 

And He tells me I am His own, 
And the joy we share, as we tarry there, 

None other has ever known." 



116 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

I saw a mother here this morning, and her beautiful 
Christian girls were with her. They care for spiritual 
things. Why ? Because their mother put those things 
into them when they were babies. 

You walk with God, and your wife and children will 
be with you. 

You dear, sweet people, you have got a kink some- 
where. A twist somewhere. You would have won 
your family to Christ if it had not been for that. 
When everything smiles, and then breaks away, and 
becomes dark, and you do things which you learn to 
regret, then there is a kink somewhere. I had a person 
like that in my congregation when I held a pastorate. 
Well, that woman in my congregation used to pray 
for her husband at every prayer meeting. His name 
was John. I tried to get John into the Church. I 
made sermons for him. And I put nets around him. 
But, somehow or other I failed to get him. I had 
seen him deeply moved, and weep at the service, and 
I expected him to surrender next, but he never came. 
And I had conversions. There wasn't a Sunday in 
the four years of my pastorate that I didn't have con- 
versions. And the people of my Church were on the 
lookout for converts. I had none of those people who 
sit on the back row and fly as soon as the Amen is 
pronounced. Some people do that, you know. She 
used to pray often and earnestly for John, but I didn't 
get him. 

One Sunday night I saw him weeping and expected 
him to come to a decision, but he didn't. He did not 
surrender and my heart was disappointed and I 
couldn't sleep that night. 



HE PLEASED GOD 117 

The next morning I went to his office (he was a 
business man) and requested to see him. 

"I am busy," was the answer sent out. 

"Well, tell him," I said, "that I am also busy and 
will not go away until I see him." 

And they told him and in a few moments out came 
the word, "Well, if you are in that mood, you'd better 
come in." 

And when I got in, I said, "I want to talk with you 
in private. Please dismiss your stenographer." 

And when she had gone, I began : 

"Now, then," I said, "last night God spoke to you, 
you didn't surrender to Christ, and I can't see why. 
I haven't been able to sleep because of your refusal. 
I was troubled because you didn't. I want to know 
if it is my fault, and if it is, I will get down on my 
knees and ask God to forgive me. I have seen you 
under the power of God and I have seen you go away 
without Christ. Is it my fault?" 

"No," he said, "it is not. I love you. I respect 
you. I know I ought to come to Christ, but there are 
reasons." 

It seemed as if ever a man was trying to be loyal to 
his wife, he was trying, that morning. 

I am going to know just what it is, I told him. 

"Well," he said, "Mary is a good wife, and a lovely 
woman, but she has got an awful temper. Last week 
she got into one of those tempers and that is what 
kept me out." 

So that was it. Those are the stumbling blocks. 
You have to take people in this world as they are. 
The Devil will magnify the little things until they 



-f 



118 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

seem to block the path and you will keep people from 
salvation. It was his wife's temper, in that man's 
case. 

"Oh, it is Mary," I said. "Very well, I will be ready 
for Mary next time." 

And sure enough, that same week, Mary came to 
the prayer meeting and said, "Mr. Smith, when is my 
John going to be converted ?" 

"Whenever you get right with God," I replied. 

"You mean me?" 

"Yourself, Mary." 

"I know," she said, weeping. "It is my temper." 

"Yes, that is the very thing that is hindering your 
husband." 

Mary wasn't walking with God, when she was in 
a passion and looking ugly; and, you know, saying 
spiteful things is expensive. 

"Boys flying kites, haul in their white-winged birds," 
but you can't do that when you are flying words. 

Thoughts unexpressed may sometimes seem as dead, 
But God cannot kill them, when once they are said. 

Some of you have broken hearts by cruel words and 
temper. 

Scientists will tell you if you breathe into a glass 
tube when in a temper, you would find upon examina- 
tion a sediment of poison in that tube that came out 
of you when you were in that temper. You are not 
like Jesus when in a temper. 

Walk with Him; how blessed the way. May God 
help you! Enoch walked with God, and you and I 
can walk with Him in the same way. 



XVII 
THEN DREW NEAR UNTO HIM 

Luke 15: 1,3. — "Then drew near unto him all the publicans 
and sinners for to hear him . . . And he spake this 
parable unto them." 

These three wonderful stories which Jesus used, 
as recorded in the 15th chapter of St. Luke's gospel, 
were specifically used by Him to teach two things: 
first, that God is seeking His own and wants to find 
His own; and second, that when His own have sense 
enough to come and confess their sin there is joy in 
Heaven. 

That is the great moving truth of the stories. You 
remember that when Jesus was receiving the Pub- 
licans and sinners the Pharisees said: "This man re- 
ceiveth sinners and eateth with them. ,, 

And Jesus said, that any man who would submit 
his life and soul and heart to the will of God, and 
turn from sin to God would be saved. That is the 
substance of these stories. 

I think I said here the other day that when the 
sheep went astray a man went after it — the owner — and 
he sought it till he found it. When the silver went 
astray, a woman went after it — when the son went 
away, nobody went after him, because there is a differ- 
ence between a sheep and a man ; there is a difference 
between a piece of silver and the soul of a man that 
has to live forever. 

119 



120 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

The sheep isn't responsible, or a piece of silver isn't 
responsible, but a man is. The man is a moral agent ; 
he has a free will; he has a privilege of choice; he has 
a power to say "No" and the power to say "Yes." 
He may be lifted to heights ineffable or he can de- 
scend to depths unutterable. 

When the sheep went away, the owner went after it. 
When the silver got lost the woman searched for it. 
Jesus told the story, remember. He told it perfectly, 
and He is teaching that repentance of the New Testa- 
ment kind is such a beautiful thing that when a man 
does repent there is joy in Heaven. 

And the son went and joined himself to a citizen 
of a far country after he had spent all. After he had 
wasted all his substance in riotous living he joined him- 
self to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into 
the fields to feed the swine, and that was about the 
most humiliating thing to any Jew in the world. 

After spending his money with the citizens of a far 
country, he was sent out into the field. You are a 
good fellow as long as your money lasts, as long as 
your health lasts, but let your money go and let your 
health go, and will they want you? 

Yes, you love me to-day, or say you do, but if I 
were to make one mistake and step down, the same 
crowd that applauds me to-day would crucify me to- 
morrow. 

Don't you forget the crowd that shouted "Hosan- 
nah" to Jesus one day, and "Away with Him !" "Let 
Him be crucified !" the next day. 

The people are with you just as long as you please 
them ; the public is with you just as long as you serve 



THEN DREW NEAR UNTO HIM 121 

it; the public is with you just as long as you satisfy 
it. The people are for you as long as you are their 
idol. But you turn around and do one thing wrong, 
and the service of years, the goodness of years, the 
consecration of years, the attempts to help others, are 
all forgotten in one mistake, in one step-down. 

Don't forget that, and when he had spent all, and 
had begun to be in want, somebody sent him in the 
fields to feed the swine. The world treats you like 
that, and you know it does. 

As long as you serve it, it will applaud you. But 
w r ait until your bloom is gone, the light has gone from 
your eyes, until the elasticity has gone from your step, 
wait until your hair turns grey and your money is 
gone. The world paid him to get out of its sight 
and the world will serve you in the same way if you 
lean upon it. And when he was sent out to feed the 
swine he came to himself. "How many hired servants 
of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I 
perish with hunger." His first notion was that he was 
hungry. And God got at him through his stomach. 
He came to himself and no man comes unto his father 
until he comes to himself. 

"I will arise, and go to my father, and will say 
unto him, I am no more worthy to be called thy son; 
make me as one of thy hired servants." 

The test was in his promising to be a better son 
and in getting up and going — walking all the way 
home — he didn't ask anybody for a ride. And he 
didn't ask his father by letter or phone or by telegram 
to send the old family chariot for him. He didn't 
say, if you will make a great fuss over me, I will come. 



122 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

He just felt weary and homesick, and tired and hun- 
gry, and wasted and sick, and he tramped all the way 
with bleeding feet and a wretched heart And the 
story doesn't tell you that his father got a company 
of his neighbours and went to hunt for him. Real 
repentance makes a man come home. And no man 
comes home himself when he is carried. No man 
repents until he comes home to his father. 

But you say the father ran to meet him ? Yes, when 
he saw him coming, and he will run to meet you when 
he sees you coming. "But when he was yet a great 
way off, his father saw him, and ran, and fell on his 
neck, and kissed him." Oh! the compassion of the 
Father when He sees you coming. And when you 
come, Jesus says, "Joy shall be in Heaven." And I 
am glad He put that in. 

And the poor tired lad said, "I have sinned," and, 
mind you, those words from his lips meant more than 
any from yours or mine. They were original then. 
They had not become stereotyped or hackneyed. "I 
have sinned and am no more worthy to be called thy 
son." But he didn't get it all out. The father didn't 
let him. He was ready to say, Make me a servant, I 
don't ask for my old place in the family, I don't ask 
for my old place at the board. I am not worthy. I 
don't ask you to let me sleep in my old, little room. 
I am not worthy of that. I will do anything, only let 
me be near enough to see your smile and to have the 
assurance that I have forgiveness, and I am willing to 
be a servant. That is the kind of repentance that 
brings salvation to the heart, when we are prepared 
to lose everything in the world, in order to get the smile 



THEN DREW NEAR UNTO HIM 123 

of God and the approval of our conscience, and free- 
dom from the guilt of the past. That is why the story 
was told, to show you how to get right with God. 

If there is joy in Heaven, there is joy in earth, and 
I thank God over one sinner that repents. Some one 
may ask, "Where was his mother ?" I don't know 
where she was. The story doesn't tell us that. But 
I know that wherever she was there was joy in her 
heart. He had a mother — I am sure of that. 

Jesus makes no reference to the mother of the 
Prodigal because she had nothing to do with his home- 
coming, or the reconciliation between him and his fa- 
ther. What He is teaching is that a poor lost sinner 
can find his way back to a pardoning God without 
any human interference. And when boys come home 
as the Prodigal came, and the mothers are anywhere 
around, there is joy. 

If there is a man or woman here this morning that 
has not come home, God help you to come home to- 
day. Jesus waits for you. And you know, if you 
don't come now, while the days of grace are flowing 
through your city, when will you come ? God is speak- 
ing to you through me. When will you come if 
you don't come when He calls you? He wants you 
to come home — will you do it? The coming belongs 
to you, the joy of pardon and the restoration will be 
yours when you have the sense to humble yourself in 
a full surrender at the foot of the cross. You will then 
hear Him say, "Bring forth the best robe, and put it on 
him." I have seen the best robe of a rose. I have 
seen the best robe of a morning that breaks over the 
cliff-tops of eternity and creeps through the gates of 



124. EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

gold without a creak on their hinges. I have seen the 
best robe of lovely valleys kissed into glory by the 
sun's first rays. I have seen Nature decked in glory 
and I have looked into beautiful faces and brilliant 
eyes. But, my brethren, "Eye hath not seen, nor ear 
heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the 
things which God hath prepared for them that love 
him." 

My brother, the best robe is for you. The robe of 
a Saviour's righteousness. The robe of eternal love- 
liness. "Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him." 

He wants to give you the best robe. Are you worthy 
of the best? He is worthy of the best you have. He 
is getting the best I have. The very best. But it is 
poor. So short of what I would like my love for 
Him to be. It is so little and what I want to give 
Him is such a lot. My service is so poor and cold! 
What I would give Him if I had it. 

Are we ready to give Him all we have this morning, 
all we hope to be ? I am ! 

"My life, my love, I give to Thee, 
Oh, Lamb of God, who died for me. 

Oh, may I ever faithful be, 
My Saviour, and my God." 



XVIII 
THE WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH 

Romans 6: 23. — "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift 
of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord." 

The man who sins, the woman who sins, will have 
to pay the bill. That is the law of life, as well as the 
law of God, so be not deceived. God is not mocked. 

"Whatsoever a man soweth that also shall he reap." 
If you sow to the flesh, you will of the flesh reap 
corruption. If you sow to the Spirit, you will reap 
life everlasting. You can't do wrong and then live as 
though nothing had happened. It is absolutely im- 
possible. 

A little boy in London was caught trying to kill his 
baby sister with a pair of scissors. He was trying to 
cut the throat of his little sister. The mother was so 
alarmed that she called in a specialist. The specialist 
said to the little fellow, "Why do you want to hurt 
your sister ?" "I just want to kill some one all the 
time," was the answer. 

The specialist, looking at the father, who was in the 
room, said, "Do you drink?" Heanswered, "Occa- 
sionally." 

"Some day this boy of yours will murder some one 
and it is because of your drinking," the specialist said. 
Don't you be deceived — the wages of sin is death. 

A beautiful woman, nearly a life-long friend of 
mine and of my wife, was taken sick at 8 o'clock one 

125 



126 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

night and was dead at 8 o'clock the next morning. 
Her husband sent for a specialist as well as the family 
doctor, for he wanted to find out all he could even after 
she was gone. The specialist said to the husband, 
"What did her mother die of?" 

"Pneumonia,' ' was the answer. "And what did her 
father die of?" "Chronic asthma." "Did her father 
ever drink?" the specialist asked. 

"Yes, heavily in his youth," came the answer. 

"That was what has killed his daughter," the special- 
ist said. 

A husband and father in one of your own cities 
came to me one day and said, "You are right, the 
wages of sin is death. I have two lovely daughters. If 
you saw them out driving, you would think they were 
beautiful. But both are blind. They are blind through 
my sin. 'The wages of sin is death.' " 

How do you expect to think pure thoughts when 
you love smutty stories and love to tell them and love 
to listen to them and are never so happy as when read- 
ing filthy, suggestive literature? How can your soul 
soar in the light when you love the filth of hell? 

The wages of sin is death. Don't be deceived. If 
you will do wrong, it is coming back. You may try 
t*o chain up the lion, chain up the tiger within you, and 
you may think you have, because they behave them- 
selves. But once in a while they get their claws far 
enough through the bars of the cage to show what they 
would do if they had their liberty. 

The only thing for you to do is to bring that heart 
to Jesus Christ and let Him clean it for you. 

You can't live a spiritual life without a spiritual 



THE WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH 127 

heart. The apostle in this same chapter talks about 
the marvelous changing grace of Jesus Christ. "Being 
made free from sin, ye became the servants of right- 
eousness." 

"But now being made free from sin, and become 
servants of God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and 
the end everlasting life." 

If you yield yourself to the world, you are the 
world's servants. If you yield yourself to false cus- 
toms, you are the servants of false customs. If you 
yield yourself to conventionalities, you are the servants 
of conventionalities. If you yield yourself to the hab- 
its of the world, you are the servants of those habits. 

If you yield yourself to lust, you are the servant of 
lust. If you yield yourself to your appetite, you are 
the servant of your appetite. If you yield yourself to 
Jesus Christ, you are the servant, the slave, — no, I 
want to change that word — you are the free man of 
the Son of God. 

Where are you this morning ? What are you follow- 
ing? Whose property are you? What is your life — 
what kind of a life are you living? Is it the life of 
Christ, or are you held down by the bondage of the 
Devil? If you are, there is One who can emancipate 
you and make you a free man this morning in Christ 
Jesus. 

Jesus Christ can save you; that is my message. 
For I believe in a full Christ. I do not believe in a 
mutilated Christ. I believe in the Christ of Beth- 
lehem, but I also 1 believe in the Christ of the great 
White Throne. I believe in the Christ from the cross, 
the Christ of the open grave. I believe in the Christ 



428 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

from the heart of the Eternal God from all eternity. 
I preach God's Christ, God's Son and Saviour of the 
world. 

I wonder if you mutilate Christ. He can't save any- 
body who limits Him and specifies boundaries for Him 
and mutilates Him. The Christ I am preaching is the 
Christ of the New Testament. It is the Christ of the 
ages. 

And I can have no fellowship, my brother, with any 
man who denies my Christ, the royal Christ. And 
Jesus is what He says He is, or He is the biggest liar 
the world ever knew. I take Him for the Saviour of 
the world. I accept Him as the Prince of Peace, my 
Saviour, my Lord and my God. That is the Christ 
I am preaching because that is the Christ the world 
needs. Oh ! that we might obey Him ! 

I know only a Saviour who saves to the uttermost 
and I don't care what your sin is, if you will bring it 
to Christ, you will find Him mighty to save. He will 
blot out your past and He will see you in the Beloved 
this morning, a new creature. That is the gospel. 
That is God's gift — Christ; God's gift to us. The 
bleeding Christ; He was God's gift to* a lost world 
and there is no other message that the world cares for, 
and anything less than that is only a tantalisation and 
an insult to* its needs. 

And you who are preachers, you and I, have got the 
greatest job and the greatest privilege the world ever 
saw, to preach Christ to its hungry heart. God help 
us to do it ! 

And we must know the real Jesus Christ before we 
can pass Him on to the world. To know God's gift of 



THE WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH 129 

life eternal and to be able to interpret that gift to the 
world is one of the greatest honours, if not the great- 
est, that can come to a human soul, for the gift of 
God is eternal life. 

A preacher friend of mine, whose name some of 
you know, was the first man called to* succeed Henry 
Ward Beecher when he passed away in Brooklyn. He 
was Dr. Charles Berry, a young Congregationalist 
minister. 

When Dr. ]|erry received the call, he said to me, "Mr. 
Smith, almost anybody can jump into Beecher's shoes, 
but it is not everybody who can wear his hat. If I 
went over there I should be known as Henry Ward 
Beecher's successor. If I stay here I shall be known as 
somebody's predecessor. And I have decided to stay." 

One night my young friend, in his first pastorate 
was sitting in his study, with his house slippers on, 
and thinking. It was after 12 o'clock and he was 
very cozy. Presently the bell rang and he went to the 
door. At the door stood a typical Lancashire girl 
with a shawl over her head and clogs on her feet. 

"Are you a minister?" she asked. "Yes," he an- 
swered. 

"You must come with me quickly; I want you to 
get my mother in." 

And in telling the story to Dr. Jowett and me later, 
he said that he naturally thought the mother was in- 
toxicated and that aid was needed to get her home. 

"Why, you must go and get a policeman," he said 
to her. 

"My mother is dying," she said, "and I must bring 
you to get her into heaven." 



130 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

"Where do you live?" and she named a place that 
was about a mile and a half away. 

"Isn't there a minister nearer that you can get ?" he 
asked. "Yes, but I want you, and you must come. 
My mother is dying." 

And he stood hesitating, for he thought, what would 
the people think of a minister going through the streets 
with a girl dressed as she was dressed and with a shawl 
over her head, and he was wondering whether he 
should go. 

But the girl took hold of his arm, and said, "Oh, 
man of God, make haste ; my mother is dying." 

"I went with her," he said, "and the house where she 
lived was a house of shame. Downstairs there was 
rowdyish singing and dancing and upstairs a woman 
was dying. And when I got to her bedside I began 
to talk to her of what I believed. I told her of Jesus, 
the example, the teacher, but she tossed about on her 
pillow, like a ship in a storm." 

"Mister," she cried, "that is no use for the likes of 
me. I am a sinner. I have lived my life. Can't you 
tell me of somebody who can have mercy upon me and 
save my poor soul?" 

"I stood in the presence of the dying woman and I 
had nothing to tell her. In the midst of sin and death 
I had no message and I was up against it. And in 
order to bring something to that dying woman, I 
jumped back to my mother's knee, to my cradle faith, 
and began with the story of the cross and the Christ, 
who was able to save unto the uttermost." 

And she looked through her tears, and said, "Now 
you are getting at it. Now you are helping me." 



THE WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH 131 

"I told her the story and got her in, and, blessed be 
God, I got in myself." 

The Christ of the text is Jesus Christ, the gift of 
God. He is the Saviour who saves to the uttermost 
and He can save you. How do I know? He saved 
me, and He can save you. Try Him, test Him, put 
Him to the proof. In these glorious days, put Him 
to the test. "The gift of God is eternal life," and 
that gift is Christ. For he that hath the Son hath life, 
and he that hath not the Son, hath not life, but the 
wrath of God abideth on him. 



XIX 

THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE PRUDENT 

John ly : 20. — "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them 
also which shall believe on me through their word." 

I Corinthians 1 : 19. — "For it is written, 'I will destroy the 
wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the 
understanding of the prudent.' " 

In these words, you have the mind, the desire, the 
purpose of Jesus Christ for those who love Him. 

If you are governed by some little preconceived no- 
tion of your own, or by some tradition of the elders, 
you will be wrong, but if you are dominated, propelled, 
constrained, infused by the mind of Jesus Christ, you 
are right. 

Now He prays for His people in this wonderful 
prayer, and if you are one of His people, He prays for 
you. He didn't say He prays for you if you are a 
Baptist, or if you are a Presbyterian, or if you are a 
Methodist, or if you are an Episcopalian, or if you 
are a member of a Christian church, or a Salvationist, 
or a member of any other denomination. 

He didn't say he is praying for that kind of a per- 
son. He says he is praying for those that belong to 
Him — and you can label yourself without belonging 
to Christ. You can write a label on yourself without 
being a Christian. You can be wrongly labelled. 

If you label yourself, the chances are you are 

wrongly labelled. When God labels a rose, He makes 

132 



UNDERSTANDING OF THE PRUDENT 133 

no mistake; when He labels a carnation, He makes no 
mistake; when He labels a lily, you know it. When 
He rests in your heart, the world will know it. It 
will discover it. 

Like a French lady in one of my services, she 
said that men had told her many times that her sins 
were forgiven, but she said, "My heart never discov- 
ered it, but the moment Jesus told me, my heart knew 
it." When Jesus tells a thing to a soul that soul knows 
it. 

You never have to put a badge on a spring morn- 
ing. Nobody thinks of labelling a spring morning. 
Spring labels herself. And you never need a badge 
on the sky when the sun comes up, saying, "This is the 
sun." The sun does not need a forerunner. When 
the sun comes out, the little flowers all know it, and 
the shadows are all chased away. When the sun comes 
out, the world knows it. When a child of God wears 
the beautiful garments of a Christian life, the world 
knows it. 

"I pray not for the world," Jesus said. He prayed 
for those that came out of the world. If you are not 
a child of God, He did not pray for you in that 
prayer. He has left you out unless you are a child 
of God. But He did pray for "them also which shall 
believe on me through their word." 

When you touch this prayer, you are touching the 
divine springs. You are not touching the superficiali- 
ties of life, but you are getting down to the divinity 
of things. 

"I pray not for the world, but for them which Thou 
hast given me, that thou shouldst keep them from the 



134 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of 
the world. Sanctify them through thy truth." 

You know, now, you Christians, what the purpose 
of God is. He wants to keep you from the suspicion of 
evil. Jesus is able to keep you from evil, and this re- 
vival will have been of immeasurable benefit if you 
continue to live in Jesus Christ. It will never be over 
as long as God is on his throne and as long as a lin- 
gering spark of grace flickers in anybody's heart as the 
result of it. 

For the grace of God endureth forever. 

Moses may come; Elijah may come. Paul and 
Peter and James and John may come and pass on, 
but Jesus abides. He is able to keep you from the 
very suspicion of evil. And I want you to believe 
that. I want you to believe that God's arms are 
around you beginners in the Church of God, and they 
will not fail. For He is the same yesterday, to-day, 
and forever. "I will keep thee lest anything harm 
thee." He will love you as the apple of His eye. 

I will tell you a little out of my heart. My father 
and his two brothers were converted almost at the 
same time. They were all three converted in one week. 
Two were converted one night and the other on the 
Sunday morning following and my father was the 
least of them and he was over six feet in height. And 
anybody who knew those gipsy men and came to hear 
them sing and pray got lifted a little nearer to heaven 

Everybody fell in love with them. And everybody 
wanted them to come to places to sing or to tell 
their conversion. And the three brothers made up 
their minds never to be parted. So that if anybody 



UNDERSTANDING OF THE PRUDENT 135 

wanted one to come for a service, all three had to be 
invited. 

I remember once somebody invited them to come 
down from London to a provincial city, where we 
had camped for the week; and when they got down 
there the week became another week and finally the 
weeks stretched themselves to six weeks before they 
came home again. And they were the longest six 
weeks I have ever lived through. For in our tent, we 
had no mother. In the next tent, there was a mother 
and when our father was away there was no one left 
to keep us company. There was Emily, of course, 
the eldest, but she was only a girl. Oh! those six 
weeks ! At last, a letter came from father which said : 

"We will be home to-morrow." 

And you know we didn't know much about trains 
and schedules, so we got up and got ready to receive 
them at 6 o'clock that summer morning, but it was 
6 o'clock that night before they came and we had 
waited twelve hours for them. I don't know how 
many times I washed my face that day. 

I was waiting for my father. I loved him. And 
when he came to the wagon and sat down and held 
the baby girl in his lap and kissed her, because she 
was the youngest, my turn came next, I stood there, 
waiting for the same love that my father was bestow- 
ing upon her. I was hungry for the same attention. 
But it seemed to me that she was getting it all, and 
I couldn't stand it any longer. So I said, "Come out, 
it is my turn." 

"You can't take me out of my daddy's arms," she 
said, 



136 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

"I know," I said, "I can't do that, but there is 
room for me there, and I am coming in too.' , 

And I want you timid people to know that your 
Father's arms are about you and it is His purpose to 
keep you, and Jesus prays that you will be kept close 
to Him. 

This is one of the things He prays for in that won- 
derful prayer, and the other thing He prays for is 
that you may be united. 

He wants you to get so that you are wieldable. 
Look at your four fingers and a thumb. It is not 
much to look at if we take them separately, but you 
unite it and it is a weapon. 

And when the Church of God is divided into sects, 
the Devil will play hide and seek with you, but when 
you get united, you will shake the foundations of Hell. 

One of the most delightful things of these days is 
that we are unable to distinguish between denomina- 
tions; we are neither Baptists, nor Methodists, nor 
Congregationalists, nor Presbyterians. And all of 
you are guessing what I am. And none of you know. 
You all think I belong to your own Church because 
I have got close to the very soul and brushed against 
the very foundation of your religious life. And the 
nearer you get to the centre, the nearer we are one 
in Jesus Christ. 

Jesus prays that we may be one. Oh! just one in 
Him. If you take a bundle of sticks you can sepa- 
rately break every one of them, but if you bind them 
up again into a bundle, you can try all day and never 
break them. 

The Devil loves a divided Church. The Devil can 



UNDERSTANDING OF THE PRUDENT 137 

do a lot with human nature. And it is human nature 
to divide. When Jesus was on earth John came run- 
ning up to Him and said, "Master!" 

"Well, John." 

"We saw a man casting out devils in Thy name a 
while ago, and we bade him stop." 

"Why?" said the Lord. 

"He didn't sing out of our hymn book." 

And John might have said he wasn't a Methodist, 
or a Baptist. "We stopped him," said John. "He 
was unauthorized. He didn't belong with us, and 
we stopped him." 

But Jesus said, "John, forbid him not, for he that 
is not against us is on our side." 

If you see a man doing a bit of work for Christ, 
if he is doing it as a Methodist, or a Baptist, or a lay- 
man, shout, "Hallelujah!" 

The main thing is to have the devils cast out. 

Have a big heart and have a bit broader mind. 
Don't be a sectarian or an insectarian. Don't you 
be so small. 

You know Scientists — and I like Lome Scientists. 
I read a scientific paper in which there was an article 
on Nature and the writer was learnedly describing 
those little mudholes in the meadows of England 
where the cows go to drink. A small pond is usually 
muddy: there is no< stream running into it and no 
stream running out of it. And the scientist went 
on to say, because there was no stream running in 
or out of the pond, whatever of life in that mudhole 
in fish, or snails, or vegetable life, and of insect life, 
knew nothing else. The pond was the universe to 



138 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

whatever there was of life in it. If there were a 
stream running through that pond the life might have 
known that there was a world above it, and if a stream 
had run out and down from that pond, the fish and 
plants and insects, which lived there, would have 
known of a world below them, or above. As it was, 
they could only see the muddy, stagnant universe in 
which they lived. 

Can you see yourself? 

Don't you build a mudhole and call it a palace, and 
don't you dig a hole and call it a universe, and don't 
you build a structure with four walls and a ceiling 
and call it the church. God's Church takes in the 
last man on earth that believes in Jesus. That is 
another thing He prays for. 

And He prays for something else. He prays that 
we may be perfect. He prays that we may be sancti- 
fied by the truth. That every power in us may be in 
harmony with the divine will. That mind, heart, 
body, may be kept without any reservation for His 
service alone. That we may be made perfect, even 
as the Father in Heaven is perfect. And He can 
make you and me perfect and He can make your 
heart and mine pure and good. He can make our 
hearts His temple. That is another thing He prays for. 

And He prays this, "Father, I will that they also, 
whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; 
that may behold my glory." 

You realise what that means, that some day we 
are going to be with Him and see Him as He is, 
and we are going to be like Him. 

A lady said to me not long ago in one of these 



UNDERSTANDING OF THE PRUDENT 139 

campaigns, "Gipsy Smith, what a starry crown you 
will get." 

"Madame, I don't care whether I get a crown or 
not," I said, "if He wins what he died for. My con- 
cern is to be of service to Him if it only means the 
bringing of one lost soul to His feet." And my time, 
my heart is concentrated on doing this to-day and 
every day, and not upon the crown. And I don't 
crave for a mansion in the skies, and although the 
streets may be of gold and the walls of jasper, I don't 
crave them. And ta. about the seats of the worthy, 
they don't interest me somehow. But I tell you what 
does appeal to me. If you will give me Jesus and 
my mother, and my father, you can put me back in 
the old gipsy tent and it will be Heaven. I don't 
care whether Heaven is paved with golden streets or 
not, if you will give me Jesus, lover of my soul. The 
One I have worked for and longed to see, and give 
me my father and my mother, that is the Heaven 
I want. I pray that they may be one and perfect and 
some day be with me and beside me in glory. 

Do you wish to make that prayer possible? Are 
you willing to comply with the conditions. Then 
make absolute surrender to Jesus Christ and live in 
vital contact with Him, and make your life count for 
Christ every day of the year, and in that way you 
will be helping to answer the prayer of our Lord, 
"That we may be sanctified, that we may be kept, 
that we may be made one, that we may be made per- 
fect." And then some day we shall be with Him, to 
behold His glory. 



TWO-MINUTE SERMONETTES 



XX 

TWENTY TWO-MINUTE SERMONETTES 



Then shall they also answer Him, saying, Lord 
when saw we Thee a hungered, or athirst, or a 
stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did 
not minister unto thee ? 

Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say 
unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the 
least of these, ye did it not to me. — Matthew 25 : 44-45. 

The first thing a convert to Christianity thinks of 
is the other fellow. How often have I seen people 
at a revival fall on their knees and call out, 'Tray 
for my mother," 'Tray for my sister," or "Pray for 
my husband." 

Why, if the Christian spirit should gain a stronger 
hold, there would even be fewer automobile accidents. 
People would never forget the rights of others. The 
man who takes his pleasure or profit at the expense 
of others is committing a great wrong. No one has 
any business hiring actors or other performers to 
risk their lives or their souls for his amusement. 

Self becomes to the Christian a foreign thing. He 
thinks of others at all times. Who saves his life shall 
lose it. I am most truly my own when I have given 
every vestige of myself. I am most truly alive when 
willing to die for others. 

In the 91st Psalm you will find in one verse: "I 

143 



144 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: 
my God; in Him will I trust." In the next verse the 
psalmist expresses the idea, "I'm safe, you may be 
saved, too," in these words : "Surely He shall deliver 
thee from the snare of the fowler and from the 
noisome pestilence." 

The selfish life does not think of anybody. When 
one becomes a Christian, self goes with the last road. 
We save our soul in saving others. It is not the 
question if that man out there will be saved if I do 
not go to him, but the question is, Will I be saved if 
I don't? 

Socrates said, "Know thyself. ,, 

Jesus said, "Deny thyself." 

The real Christian studies large maps; he can't 
help it. It is a big thing to be a Christian. It re- 
quires big thinking and big living. And it is possible 
to any man of strong will or strong faith. 

II 

For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with 
peace : the mountains and the hills shall break forth 
before you into singing, and all the trees of the field 
shall clap their hands. — Isaiah 55 : 12. 

Religion is never a killjoy. All God means to kill 
is the ugly, the mean, and the sinful. 

Yet many think the sadder they are, the safer. 
They go around with faces as long as a wet week. 
But sanctimoniousness is not sanctity. 

There is more religion in a hearty laugh than in a 
grouch. Let there be more joy and less jaw. 



TWO-MINUTE SERMONETTES 145 

I remember seeing in a religious weekly in England 
a few years ago an advertisement by a lady and a 
gentleman who were going to take a trip around the 
world. She wanted to engage a companion, "Chris- 
tian woman preferred, but she must be joyful." 

Can you imagine anything more ironical than this 
— and the sadness of it. One chief characteristic of 
a true Christian is happiness, smiles, laughter. "The 
joy of the Lord is your strength," and "Then was our 
mouth filled with laughter." 

There are far too many briars and thorns in this 
life. People don't draw close enough together for 
fear of getting scratched. What religion is meant to 
do is to take the scratch out of us. Less briars, more 
roses, more violets, lilies of the valley and perfume 
of the beauty of the Lord. 

I say this in spite of the fact that I know that there 
is no real Christian life without its sorrows and its 
suffering. Through my life God means to bring re- 
freshment and inspiration to those about me. After 
the storm we see the rainbow of hope, and He takes 
the sorrow out of the heart by removing the curse 
of sin. 

Religion was never meant to make an undertaker 
weep. Let there be joy! 

in 

Modern man is very clever, and no doubt some 
of his achievements would seem supernatural to the 
primitive people of the past. 

There is danger, of course, that in their pride over 



146 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

brilliant inventions or remarkable discoveries, some 
people to-day should forget the one behind these scien- 
tific wonders. 

It would be possible for an uneducated race to 
confuse an aviator for an angel. 

Some educated people, in much the same way, may 
consider that they have conquered divine laws and 
freed themselves from dependence on any power ex- 
cept that within themselves. 

But the foundations were not laid by man. 

The possibilities for inventions existed long be- 
fore man suddenly stumbled upon something illu- 
mined by God. 

Who put the coal, the iron, the copper and all 
the minerals beneath the earth for man to mine? It 
was God, making wise provisions for man's need. 

The airplane can't stay up, but must come down. 
There are limits to all the powers of man. Once in 
a while in my country, one comes upon a road across 
a private estate, which is open to the public except on 
one day each year. 

On that one day the owner bars the way in order 
that his ownership may not be forgotten. 

Once in a while God puts the chains across. 

[Man can harness the forces of nature; he can 
hardly be said to master them, but only to work with 
them. He can invent machinery, but he did not in- 
vent the materials. 

With all his cleverness, he can't invent anything 
to heal a broken heart, kiss a tear into a jewel, mend 
a broken life or take the burden of misery from a 
guilty soul. 



TWO-MINUTE SERMONETTES 147 

I know something that will do that, for all who 
come unto God through Him whose name is Jesus. 



IV 

The arena of woman's toil is in public places to-day, 
but she can still be as close to the angels as ever. 

Instead of finding work at home many are forced 
to enter offices, mills, shops, banks, warehouses and 
almost every conceivable line of trade. 

Every one likes to see a woman remain a woman, 
and whether she is strong as a mountain or fresh as 
a rose, she can still hold her true place. 

While she has more freedom, equality and higher 
education, we still ought to remember that she is a 
woman. 

The memory of mother, sister and wife ought to 
force upon the mind of every man who associates 
with a woman in a business way, that she is entitled 
to the same consideration as his own womenfolk. 

The desire to have one's own children treated 
well ought to lead every employer to treat those who 
serve him in the same way. 

On the other hand, woman ought not expose herself 
to or expect any other treatment. She should check 
immediately any word or action that trespasses on 
virtue. 

If a woman is true to herself and to her sisters, 
and, mind you, she has only to be true and every man 
will respect her, she can command any treatment she 
really wants. Lots of beautiful things come to us if 
we are only good, honest, pure and true. 



148 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

I cannot imagine Mary, the mother of our Lord, 
with skirts too short, wearing bobbed hair, smoking 
or drinking. 

I believe a woman has as much right to smoke as 
a man, but I can't imagine Mary doing it. 

When I see a woman smoke it hurts me, way 
down deep, and I believe it hurts other men, too. 

The Bible is the foundation of woman's rights, 
but further than that Christianity has taught men 
to reverence women. 

It is among the idle rich that the most liberties 
are now being taken. The morale of women workers 
is, on the whole, sound. 

And to all women I would say, think long and 
hard before you throw away any of your title to 
the respectful admiration of men. 

God meant woman to be a mother — the sort of 
mother to whom her children can look up, and upon 
whom in years to come they will look back with a 
love and understanding that influences their whole 
attitude toward the sex. 



Whichever way one turns, unrest, confusion, chaos 
and wild passions possess the breasts of multitudes. 
Jealousy, hatred and envy are reigning supreme in the 
minds of men. 

We read in the scriptures of one person who had 
seven devils in her, and one man had enough in 
him to drown two thousand hogs when they were cast 



TWO-MINUTE SERMONETTES 149 

out of him. Nations are like that, and they can be 
saved only by casting out the devils. 

As we look across the face of the globe to-day and 
see the conflict as manifested, what is there beneath 
all that we don't see? What about the inward rumb- 
lings that only ears divine listen to, and the seething 
unrest which the human eye cannot detect? 

But, ah, every honest, intelligent man knows just 
a little about it if he will look within his own 
poor, distracted heart. 

And as I sit here this morning and think of these 
things, I cannot help but ask who is sufficient to the 
task? Is there anybody that can step in amidst the 
dark confusion and world misery and still its storm 
and hush its tempests? 

And my heart leaps up with a great bound, saying, 
"Yes, Jesus, who stood on the Galilean lake and 
lifted His hand amidst the tempest and said, 'Peace, 
be still,' and the wind and waves obeyed and crept 
away in silence to lick His feet." 

If the world would but invite Him to enter its 
life and its sorrows, He would come and point a 
way out. He would bring peace because He would 
still the storm of sin. That's the cause of all the 
confusion and strife. 

Wherever Jesus is listened to, obeyed and enthroned, 
men become as brothers. What is true of individuals, 
homes, hamlets and cities, is true also of nations and 
would be true of the world, and it only needs to be 
given a trial. 

Peace doesn't follow the munition train; it follows 



150 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

in the wake of the Prince of Peace. That's the way 
to brotherhood. 



VI 

We stand to-day nineteen centuries nearer to Christ. 
Instead of the figure on the cross growing dimmer, it 
is clearer now than in those first days. People then 
saw Him at close range, defeated, frustrated, and 
apparently conquered; misjudged, lied about, perse- 
cuted and condemned to all the cruelties of a com- 
mon soldiers' barracks; finally hanged like a felon 
between two thieves. 

How could they reconcile these experiences with 
the words uttered only a few hours before: "Be of 
good cheer, I have overcome the world"? 

To multitudes of people in those days Jesus must 
have seemed a contradiction. All that arose "because 
they were slow of heart to believe the Scriptures." 

But we are standing in the nineteenth century, and 
we look back and know. The evidence of the centuries 
is the triumph of Christ and His cross. 

All the good in the world, all the uplift, all the 
love, all righteous sentiment, every benevolent institu- 
tion, every soothing influence which makes the sor- 
rows of the world easier to bear and the burdens 
lighter, have resulted from Christ's coming and Christ's 
loving presence. 

There are multitudes who see grief thus wiped 
away from sorrow's face, and who realise that the 
world is steadily growing better, yet do not connect 
these things with Christ. These are his direct fruits, 



TWO-MINUTE SERMONETTES 151 

It can still be said that He is the same yesterday, to-day 
and forever. 

As the apostle said, "We love because He first 
loved us." The love of God in Christ is the inspira- 
tion of everything beautiful in this world. 



VII 

Some one says that Christianity is all very fine, but 
that the trouble is that it has never been tried. In a 
large way this is true: God has never been given a 
fair chance. 

Take the Sermon on the Mount. Suppose every 
man and woman in Omaha just took that to heart for 
twenty-four hours, and said nothing and did nothing 
in deed or thought which they could not reconcile or 
harmonize with the teachings to which Jesus Christ 
gave utterance in that wonderful sermon. 

Can anybody in the wildest flight of imagination 
estimate what would happen? Why, you couldn't put 
it into words. Any vocabulary would be absolutely 
worthless to describe what changes would come about 
in a single day if the Sermon on the Mount were to 
be practised. And no one would want to go back to 
the old sinful ways, for there is more happiness in 
doing right. 

The nearest I can come to expressing it is to say 
that heaven would have come to earth. And that's 
what Jesus Christ came to do, to teach men and 
women to live on earth as they would in heaven. This 
is the meaning of His great prayer, "Thy will be done- 
on earth as it is in heaven." 



152 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

But some will say, "How is this to be done?" My 
answer is simple. Christ's words and will can only 
be fulfilled by me, a human being, as I honestly seek 
to understand the Christian spirit. 

Men boast of the Golden Rule. They'll never un- 
derstand or be able to practise the Golden Rule until 
they are born again into the spirit of the nature of 
Him who taught it. "The letter alone killeth. It is 
the spirit which giveth life." 

The simple reason it is not practised is that men 
are dominated by self. But Christ did not come for 
self, but to give Himself. 

What this world needs is thorough-going Christians, 
It does no good to tinker. We've got to start with 
the whole man, not at the finger tips, but deep within 
the heart. 

The thought I wish to leave is that irreligion, which 
is responsible for the misery of the world, is not 
a skin complaint. 

VIII 

I read the other day of a cashier who embezzled 
$11,000 in order to have the means to shine in the 
eyes of the woman he was wooing. A woman who 
would lead a man thus to live beyond his means is 
as bad as the man. Even in these days of shallow 
morality and false values, it is plain to all that no 
such marriage could be a success. 

What sort of woman makes a good wife? First 
of all she must be not only lover, but friend. 

When the glamour of the honeymoon has worn 



TWO-MINUTE SERMONETTES 153 

away, she must be his companion and in the day of 
stress and strain, an anchor and a source of strength 
and inspiration. Blessed is she, who, if storms arise, 
will be strong enough and true enough to say to her 
husband, "I have shared your joys, I am here to share 
your troubles." 

And if health and wealth and friends be gone, if 
she is the kind of girl to make a man happy, she will 
put her arms about his neck, look into his face and say, 
"Darling, though everything is gone, you've got me. 
I'm here to stay. You took me for better or for 
worse, and I am not the kind to forsake you or show 
less love simply because ill fortune has overtaken you." 

That's the kind of a wife a wise man wants, and 
she is to be found. 

!A pretty character will outshine a pretty face. 
Assuming the fellow is worthy — what he ought to be, 
clean, straight, pure — he deserves something more than 
a butterfly or a model for smart clothes. If he is not, 
he ought not to demand the love of a sweet, pure girl. 
Let him marry one of his own kind. A man can't 
expect more of a girl than he is prepared to* give. 
Home training, a mother's influence, Sunday School 
and Church, all influences for eternal right, are re- 
quired in the blood and bone to make this kind of a 
woman, as well as a real man. Only the religion of 
Jesus Christ can produce noble, pure and strong men 
and women. 

I think of what Solomon well said : "Whoso findeth 
a wife findeth a good thing." He tried many, but he 
was thinking of the kind of wife I've been describing. 

The best wife is she who is a good chum to her 



154 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

husband, a pure mother to her children and a builder 
of home. 

IX 

Love God, love the world. 

Trouble came into the world with disobedience to 
God. Then man began to choose his own way, and 
sowed the seeds which have brought forth the harvest 
of alienation from God and separation from our 
brothers. This means discord, bitterness and strife. 

Apart from God the heart of man grows worse. 
Instead of love for God and man, the tendency is for 
rebellion against God and hatred of one another. 
God's programme of redemption is to correct all that. 

The divine purpose does not merely take in this 
man or that little group, but the whole of human 
kind. He wills that men should brothers be, the wide 
world o'er. 

This is to come about by saving man from sin. 
God deals with causes. He is seeking to get rid of 
the thing that is eating the life out of the body politic. 
When that's gone there will be love for God and 
love for our fellowmen. 

There will be no room in the heart for doing my 
brother. The Golden Rule will be the order of the 
day. Rightness and righteousness will cover the earth, 
as waters cover the deep. God's purpose is not a 
trickle, it's an ocean. As the angels sang, "Peace on 
earth, good will to man." 

Socially, economically and universally, there is 
work for all. There is bread enough and to spare. 
But all must be willing to take their just share for 



TWO-MINUTE SERMONETTES 155 

the common good. There must be no idlers, no one 
living the selfish life, but all with the open hand and 
the ever ready heart. There is a place for all who 
are born into this world, in work, service and reward. 
God put enough food on the earth for every bird, 
but they have to scratch for it. 



x 

Brush the dust off your Bible. Half the sorrows 
of the world come about because people don't read 
their Bible. They simply don't know and can't under- 
stand the great truths it contains. 

Every one likes to hear a secret, and the divine 
confidences and revelations are fascinating from 
every point of view. 

Jesus once said to the people, "Search the Scriptures; 
for in them ye think ye have eternal life : and they 
are they which testify of me." 

In that wonderful walk which He had with His 
disciples to Emmaus, after the resurrection, He said, 
after they had expressed their unbelief : "Oh, fools, 
and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets 
have spoken: ought not Christ to have suffered these 
things, and to enter into His glory?" The next verse 
tells us much: "And beginning at Moses and all the 
prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scrip- 
tures, the things concerning Himself." 

These two men, after it was all over, said : "Did 
not our hearts burn within us while He talked with us 
by the way?" Now, then, all He had done was to 
make the Scriptures live. 



156 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

Many really good people, anxious to do what's right, 
fall into 1 all kinds of blunders and some are led away 
by popular heresies which are easy to the flesh, simply 
because they don't read and ponder and inwardly digest 
the living, abiding words of the Lord. 

The greatest among writers and statesmen have 
been devoted readers of the Bible. The works of 
Shakespeare, Scott, Dickens, Emerson and all the 
classic writers are saturated with Scriptural phrases. 
In world politics it is the same. What strengthened 
Lincoln, John Bright and William Gladstone and gave 
them their powers of expression but knowledge of the 
Word of God? 

Jesus, when only twelve years old, sat among the doc- 
tors of thought and literature, and He sits there to-day, 
while the greatest masters bow in His presence. 

If we only will read our Bible and listen to its echo 
within us, we will not fail to bow to righteousness, 
take off our hats to truth, and like Moses, our shoes 
as well, feeling that we are standing on holy ground. 

XI 

When people get the real thing, they will show as 
much enthusiasm over their religion as their sports. 

Pleasure is a passing scene, gone in an hour. Faith 
will outlive the stars. I prefer to hitch my life to 
eternity. 

Almost $1,000,000 was spent for seats at the world 
series base ball games. Another $1,000,000 was spent 
for a prize fight. If men of the world value their 
enjoyment so highly, what ought Christian men and 



TWO-MINUTE SERMONETTES 157 

women to do in return for the highest joy that life 
can hold? 

Nothing in the world so arouses my enthusiasm as 
my religion; no thrill can equal that of seeing a man 
turn his face from sin. What can any one see in a 
foot ball or base ball game every day ? I can understand 
enjoying it once a week, and I like a game of golf 
once in a while myself, but kicking, throwing or 
chasing a ball is far from being the chief end of man. 

The cry of a heart in hunger and despair for new 
life through Jesus Christ excites me as nothing else 
can do. 

Where a man works just for things he can see 
and handle, for the superficial pleasures of earth, he 
has nothing for the storm. When the cyclone of 
trouble strikes, where is he to find shelter? When 
health gives way, when riches take wings and fly off 
and sorrows come, what is left for him? Nothing 
but darkness. 

The man who loves God and has made a friend of 
Jesus Christ seeks to have him in all his pleasures. 
Then in an evil day, he finds he has a friend that 
sticks closer than a brother. 

All this comes under the Master's great words, "Lay 
not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where 
moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break 
through and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures 
in heaven." 

God is whispering to the inner consciousness, "I 
will not leave thee ; I am thy God, even f orevermore." 

The man who finds his joy in righteous doing is in- 
vesting for eternity. 



158 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 



XII 



The heart of man is naturally proud. He objects 
to be called or thought a spiritual pauper. He doesn't 
like to admit himself a beggar at the gate of mercy, and 
yet that is exactly the position all have got to come to. 

As the prophet says : "All we, like sheep, have gone 
astray. We have turned every one to his own way." 
And Paul said later, "All have sinned and come short 
of the glory of God." 

The average man and woman is quite prepared to 
confess the other fellow is a sinner, who must repent 
and turn to God. But it is the feeling of deep con- 
viction in my own heart that I have sinned and that 
I am a rebel against God that is absolutely necessary. 

Jesus has nothing to say and nothing to do> for the 
self-righteous. He came for sinners. When a man 
feels his sin and how undone it has made him, he will 
be ready to call for the doctor who can cure his 
disease. 

He will then be ready to confess his sin openly, if 
necessary, before the world, in order that pardon and 
cleansing may be his, and healing come to the wounds 
which sin has caused. 

No conventions, no pride, real or false, and no 
shame will he allow to stand between him and the 
only source which can give him relief. He must con- 
fess openly — and what is more, he desires to do it, 
when he gets to the place where he wishes sincerely 
to be healed and saved. 

If, perchance, he fell on his knees in his own bed- 
room and made full surrender to God and trusted Him 



TWO-MINUTE SERMONETTES 159 

for salvation and received it, do you suppose he could 
keep silent about it? The very joy of it would send 
him out, and he would want everybody to know of 
the Lord's mercy. 

This is the method of the working of His grace. 
Remember that Jesus said : "Whosoever shall confess 
me before men, him will I confess also before my 
Father which is in heaven." 



XIII 

■We've only one life in this world and if we play 
the fool with it we have to answer somewhere and 
to somebody. If a man wastes his physical energies 
and destroys his health by his own sin, then all the 
doctors will tell him that he must stand before the 
judgment bar of health. Nature and the physical laws, 
whether we like them or not, always present their bill 
for payment. 

Too often youth does not realise the value of life 
and the wisdom of living it as it should be done. Their 
need is not to prepare for death, but for showing a 
life approved by God. 

What will help youth to live the best life — the kind 
that brings satisfaction to the conscience and pride 
to mothers and fathers ? Just one thing — the religion 
of Jesus Christ. 

And though youth may sometimes sneer and assume 
an attitude of skepticism, saying that religion is played 
out, the mightiest men and minds of this and past 
generations will all tell you that Jesus Christ and His 
message of love to the world is the only cure for the 



160 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

ills of the world, and the only power which comes 
into human life and stills its storms and gives peace. 

Ask Sir James Simpson, the great discoverer of 
chloroform, to tell you what was the greatest discovery 
he ever made. He will answer, as he did to this very 
question put to him, "That I have a Savior." Ask Sir 
Oliver Lodge, the greatest living scientist, and he will 
say that, although an agnostic in his younger days, 
by sheer scientific research he was driven at the end 
to belief in Jesus Christ as the one real power and 
Savior of the world. 

William Ewart Gladstone told the world that after 
all his experience as a statesman, all his thinking 
and reading, that he had come to the conclusion that 
all men had to receive Jesus Christ as a little child. 
These are only samples of the greatest minds in history. 
If these colossal brains could accept the teachings of 
Jesus Christ and believe Him the Savior of all men, 
surely where these could afford to tread, we may fol- 
low and find pardon for sin and strength for right. 

XIV 

No one should ever be able to say of any woman, 
"She made it easy for a man to do wrong." God 
never made a woman thus, to pull men down, but to 
be companion, wife, mother, friend and inspiration at 
all times. 

I suppose you would call Herodias and her daugh- 
ter, Salome, "vamps" to-day. 

She danced Herod into the pit of perdition, and 
danced the head of John the Baptist off. Her whole 



TWO-MINUTE SERMONETTES 161 

life was given over to evil, self-indulgence and voluptu- 
ous pleasure. It ended in the ruin of the king and the 
disgrace of his court, the degradation of her own child 
and a place in Bible history as the cruel murderess 
of the forerunner and cousin of Christ. 

Another example of a vampire woman is Drusilla, 
the mate of Felix, who left her first husband to live 
with the governor. When the Apostle Paul stood be- 
fore the pair, he spoke pointedly of morality and fu- 
ture punishment. The governor trembled, but Drusilla 
was unabashed. 

Just as it is possible for women to soar to heights 
unreached by men, so is it possible for women to fall 
farther than any man, once they start downward. 

It is within the power of women to make the world 
anew. They can inspire the noblest instincts of men, 
and ought to do nothing through their general deport- 
ment and manner of dress that would lower the respect 
in which they are held. 

The erring woman of the Bible who is best known is 
Mary Magdalene. She saw the folly and error of 
her ways and in penitence of tears sought the feet of 
Jesus. Looking into her heart, and knowing she was 
penitent, Jesus said: "Thy sins are forgiven." 

Oh, the love which forgets the sin and remembers 
the sinner, in mercy and compassion. That is the 
Christianity I am preaching to-day. 

xv 

For what the law could not do, in that it was weak 
through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the 



162 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin 
in the flesh. 

That the righteousness of the law might be ful- 
filled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after 
the Spirit. — Romans viii. 3 : 4. 

If you get your heart right, you will want your 
body to be right, too. We can't purify the well by 
painting the bucket. That is why it is a mistake to 
spend so much time tinkering with externals instead 
of dealing with the real, basic things. 

There is a savage race in the Orient whose women 
wear seventeen skirts, but that does not make them 
Christians, or even moral. 

As I said in my sermon the other night, "Let your 
heart dictate, not your head." 

Hazlitt, the English essayist, was right when he 
advised that in any question of moral or spiritual liv- 
ing, one who trusted his head alone was most likely 
to go wrong. 

This isn't making religion a senseless, blind, foolish 
thing, for by letting the heart lead, the mind follows, 
and one comes to believe with all his mind, his strength 
and his soul. 

I believe in setting up the New Testament standard 
of religion. 

People are quick to accept this and say, "That's the 
thing I want; that's my mother's religion." 

Hearing the message in this way they don't shy off. 

The New Testament standard is "Ye must be born 
again." 

No man can live a new life with an old heart. He 



TWO-MINUTE SERMONETTES 16'3 

must be converted and become as a child. The new 
life demands a new heart. 

We cannot keep the Ten Commandments as law — 
they must become more of a personal contract with 
God. God is after the individual — the last, the lost, 
the least. 



XVI 

There are some in this world who are debtors to 
the people, and the time comes when each of them 
must render an accounting. 

Let it still be remembered that the Scriptures de- 
clare: "To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth 
it not, to him it is sin." So, some people are bigger 
sinners than they appear. The amount of my light 
determines the amount of my responsibility and the 
amount of my sin, if the light be not lived up to. If 
people sin in the face of light which shows them the 
right way, then their condemnation is all the greater. 

The debtors of the people are its leaders. I wonder 
what would happen if the strongest men and women 
in the city would set the example of Christian living. 
I mean those strongest in an educational, financial 
and social way; those who are looked upon as the 
prominent ones in the city. If these will only conduct 
their lives with a clear conscience so they can take 
their stand and lead also in the spiritual world, what 
would happen? 

No one can estimate the good that would be done 
if these pivotal people consecrated themselves to the 
service of Jesus Christ. After all, culture, money 



164 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

and breeding do count — people look up to those for- 
tunate enough to possess these qualities. And the 
holders should feel their responsibility to those less 
fortunate. For the God of Love who sits on the 
throne is also the God of Justice. 

Some day He's coming back to this old earth, and 
Jesus is coming, coming back to claim His own. He 
will ask what the man of culture did with his learn- 
ing, what the man of wealth did with his riches, what 
those of social position did with their opportunities 
and powers. We'll all have to render an accounting. 
Some day we'll find out that we are to be judged, not 
only for what we have done, not only for breaking the 
moral law, but for the things we might have done if 
we had been less selfish and less interested in the ag- 
grandizement to be gotten out of our privilege. 

Jesus once borrowed a man's fishing boat, and from 
that old fish-smelling boat preached a sermon to the 
hungry multitude. That boat was Simon's business, 
his daily avocation. And Jesus is saying to the man 
of culture: "Let me help you spread the knowledge 
that will save the world;" to the man of wealth: 
"Let me help make your dollars honestly and then 
spend them for the kingdom of righteousness;" and 
to the man and woman of society: "Let me come into 
your homes and leaven your programme of entertain- 
ment, so that every flower, every note of music, the 
spread table and the evening of fellowship will show 
my presence." Let your every deed shine so that your 
friends will say, "This man and this woman have 
been with Jesus, and learned of Him." 



TWO-MINUTE SERMONETTES 165 

XVII 

Jesus thought less of property rights than of human 
rights. For all that, he did not preach that it was a 
sin to be rich. He was not interested in how much 
wealth a man had, but how he got it and what he 
did with it. 

The great Master knew what He was saying when 
He uttered those arresting words, "How hardly shall 
they that have riches enter into the kingdom." Fol- 
lowing that He said: "It is easier for a camel to go 
through a needle's eye, than for a rich man to enter 
into the kingdom of God." Of course, you know 
that the needle's eye was the inner gate of the city, 
to enter which the camels had to get down on their 
knees. 

When prosperity becomes a god, men live only for 
making profits and satisfying their desires. In another 
place it is written, "If riches increase, set not thy heart 
upon them." We are also told that the love of money 
is the root of all evil. Jesus Christ when saying that 
it was hard for the rich to enter heaven was teaching 
the great fact that the rich have greater temptations 
to self-indulgence, to extravagance, to outward display 
and to dissipation than have the ordinary run of men. 
The desire to outdo all others in the race and to go 
the other fellow one better helps men to forget God 
and the needs of their brothers. 

Those who possess wealth are under terrific respon- 
sibility. Let them read the closing verses of the 25th 
chapter of Matthew, where Jesus consigns to punish- 



166 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

ment eternal those who possessed the ability to feed 
the hungry and clothe the naked and comfort the sick 
and those in prison. These people were rich enough 
to do, but were so taken up with fulfilling the lusts of 
the flesh that they did not think of any one but them- 
selves. 

The greed of men is never satisfied, and the more 
they get, the more they want, as if their hands were 
born clutching. As though stocks, bonds, skyscrapers, 
automobiles, fine clothes, fast company and expensive 
dinners were the main things in the world. They for- 
get that these are the things that go first and that hon- 
ours perish and decay. That's the way of the world. 

The wisest of kings and the richest of men, after 
trying all that the human mind could think of or de- 
sire, before he left the world staggered amid his own 
misery of spirit, said, all was vanity and vexation. 
Put this alongside the words of Jesus to the people 
who left all to follow him, consecrating everything, 
such as it was, to the service of the Master and those 
for whom he died : "Peace I leave with you, my peace 
I give unto you." (The world giveth excitement, he 
giveth peace. ) "Let not your heart be troubled, neither 
let it be afraid." 

XVIII 

Paul said, "All things are lawful, but all things are 
not expedient." He was a big enough Christian and 
a big enough man to be willing to sacrifice even those 
things he liked, not only for the sake of Christ, but 
for the sake of his fellow men* 



TWO-MINUTE SERMONETTES 167 

Hence he declared, "What things were gain to me, 
those I counted loss for Christ, that I may know Him, 
and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship 
of His sufferings." 

There we have self-denial for the sake of personal 
fellowship with God. Now hear him in his willingness 
to sacrifice his tastes and desires for the sake of the 
weak men and women around Him. And you hear 
these words, "If meat causeth my brother to stumble, 
I will eat no flesh for evermore." 

That's the big spirit of Christianity. 

I verily believe that I could do many things without 
sinning against God, or against my conscience. Some 
things I'm thinking of now I would enjoy doing. But 
what about the man who looks up to me, who hasn't 
my light and my point of view, and doesn't see as I 
see? Ought I to ignore him? 

Should I not rather consider his weakness? If I 
am stronger than he, should I not be willing to carry 
his burden — him, too, if necessary — in order that he 
may be saved? 

I have no right as a Christian or as a man, either 
in public or private, to take my pleasures at the ex- 
pense of another's ruin. This applies to all the walks 
of life, in business, in the home and everywhere. 

We must apply the spirit of Jesus in all these mat- 
ters, remembering that the apostle said of Him that 
even Christ pleased not Himself. Then he turns right 
around to me and says : "Let this mind be in you, which 
was also in Christ Jesus." 



168 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

XIX 

It has been said that the hand that rocks the cradle 
rules the world. Next to the mother in influence comes 
the school teacher, whose task it is to train the mind 
of the future generation. 

The teacher has the boy and girl under his or her 
influence in the formative, tender years, the impres- 
sionable years, when seeds are sown that bring forth 
the harvest. What the harvest will be, whether good 
or ill, depends on the home and the school. 

What the children are taught in the first ten years 
of their school life largely forms the foundation on 
which they build their future. The structure can 
never stand unless it is built on a solid foundation. 
If I could have the mothers and fathers and teachers 
loyal to Christ for the next twenty years in English- 
speaking lands, we could capture the planet for the 
Lord Christ. 

It is not enough simply to teach boys and girls to 
read, write, add figures and master science, art, litera- 
ture and languages. They must be taught, like Tim- 
othy, the Scriptures, and learn to see God's view of 
men and things, and to seek first the kingdom of God 
and His righteousness. This is essential if boys and 
girls are to grow up into a generation of pure, strong, 
noble, clean, honest, God-fearing men and women. 

And surely that is and should be the business of 
the schools. Unless that is the purpose of school life, 
in the midst of mind training you may have a cultured 
person so far as learning goes, but with a heart filled, 
like the Pharisees, with uncleanliness. They were cul- 



TWO-MINUTE SERMONETTES 169 

tured, but Jesus said to them : "Ye cleanse the outside 
of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full 
from extortion and excess." 

Some of the biggest scoundrels I have known have 
been university men and women. The head may be 
trained and may be filled with all sorts of good things, 
while the heart is starved because it is estranged from 
God. 

The truest culture is that which takes in mind, body 
and soul. That is the programme of Jesus Christ. 



xx 

If the Sermon on the Mount is read with as much 
interest as an article in the newspaper, the conclusion 
must be arrived at that society is wrong. No man 
can read it without feeling, if he is honest with him- 
self, that civilization is far from perfect, that changes 
must come. 

Two things are needful, — the conscience to recognise 
the truth, to crystallise it devoid of impurity, and the 
determination to put truth into* action. 

Men and women are not dying to-day for want of 
light. The average man has light enough to 
distinguish between right and wrong. Knowledge is 
abundant enough, but conscience is scarce. No, we are 
not dying for want of light, but for lack of honesty. 
"This is the condemnation, that light is come into the 
world, and men loved darkness rather than light," and 
this is the reason, "because their deeds were evil." 

And Jesus said : "Love thy neighbor as thyself." 
When men get adjusted to God, they soon get adjusted 



170 EVANGELISTIC TALKS 

with their neighbours. Suppose, instead of a few 
working crystals, every man should be full of the godly 
light and love for his fellows. That would be like 
heaven. When Jesus taught us to pray, "Our Father" 
instead of "My Father," he was thinking of a united 
humanity. 

This world can not be run by men. They can't run 
it by themselves along the line laid down in the Ser- 
mon on the Mount. The job is too gigantic. Only the 
fool says: "There is no God," or "I can do without 
him." 

Let God come back to His own, and there'll be 
fellowship and friendship, the brotherhood of the 
world. 



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